A carpenter has been nailed to a wooden cross for the last time after 37 years of reenacting Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal tradition.
Ruben Enaje, 65, decided it was his final “sacrifice” after enduring the gory ritual for over three decades.
For this year’s Passion of Christ drama, he requested not to be whipped, kicked or slapped by village actors dressed as Roman soldiers in the Lenten reenactment of the Way of the Cross.
Ahead of the “crucifixion”, Enaje and two other devotees carried their crosses on their backs for half a mile in the scorching heat. This year, he carried a slightly lighter cross weighing 20kg, which he was then nailed to.
Man nailed to cross for 37th and final time in brutal Good Friday
Only his palms were nailed this time, sparing his feet from being pierced by alcohol-soaked steel nails, after his wife told how she’d begged her carpenter husband to halt the annual spectacle, due to his weakened lungs.
The annual event has turned Enaje into a village celebrity, with devotees flocking to the three rural communities in Pampanga province, north of Manila, in the Philippines, to witness the grim ceremony.
He had previously wavered, saying he was getting too old. But he admitted he has struggled to turn down requests from villages to pray for sick family members as he carries out the spectacle.
This year, he spoke of his hope for world peace, telling Inquirer.Net: “Only three countries are in conflict, yet they affect the whole world.”
He has previously raised similar issus, including the war against Ukraine.
He said at the time: “If these wars worsen and spread, more people, especially the young and old, would be affected. These are innocent people who have totally nothing to do with these wars.”
He added: “This is why I always pray for peace in the world.”
Ruben began the crucifixion event after he miraculously dodged death when he fell at a construction site when he was 25. He said it was important for him to make a “sacrifice” to thank God for his “second life”.
In the 1980s, Enaje survived nearly unscathed when he accidentally fell from a three-story building, prompting him to undergo the crucifixion act as thanksgiving for what he considered a miracle. He extended the ritual after loved ones recovered from serious illnesses, one after another, and he landed more carpentry and sign-painting job contracts.
During the previous crucifixions, which took on a dusty hill in Enaje’s village of San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga and two other nearby communities, he and other religious devotees carried heavy wooden crosses on their backs for more than a kilometre (more than half a mile) often in the scorching summer heat, while wearing thorny crowns.
Village actors dressed as Roman centurions later hammer 4-inch (10-centimetre) stainless steel nails through their palms and feet, then set them aloft on wooden crosses under the sun for about 10 minutes as a large crowd prays and snaps pictures.
The carpenter told Review of Religions: “It all started in 1985, when I fell from the third floor of a building and miraculously escaped death.
“At that moment, I made a vow to God that I will make a sacrifice to pay for my second life; I wanted to do that by re-enacting the act of the crucifixion as thanksgiving. One year after my accident, I joined the Senakulo (re-enactment of crucifixion), where I carried the cross to the Burol (Hill of Crucifixion).”
The carpenter added: “From what I have heard from my grandfather, the re-enactment rituals have been carried out in the Philippines since 1945 or the 1950s.”
In the meantime, a second-year law student at Kampala International University, Dennis Zziwa, sustained injuries while portraying Jesus Christ during a Good Friday Way of the Cross procession at Our Lady of Africa Church, Mbuya, Uganda.
Dennis sustained injuries from the beatings he received during the intense scenes of the reenactment.
He received immediate first aid from Red Cross responders and was later taken to Lamone Health Center in Luzira for further medical attention.
