In May 31, 1606, the Black Nazarene, a life-size wooden sculpture, was brought by galleon from Mexico by the first group of Augustinian Recollect friars. Enroute, as folk tradition relates, the statue was damaged in a ship fire, and it original white complexion was burned into a charred discoloration, henceforth, earning the name “Black Nazarene.”
read, too, The feast of the Nazarene, January 2012