Watch- Devotee nailed on CROSS to mark Jesus crucifixion

Christian devotees are nailed to a cross during a reenactment of the Crucifixion of Christ during Good Friday and ahead of Easter in San Juan, Pampanga, on April 19, 2019.

The world has marked Good Friday in astounding ways.

During the celebrations, Christians remember the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Christians have witnessed a man being nailed to a cross on Good Friday in the Philippines.

A Catholic devotee is lowered after he was nailed to a wooden cross during Good Friday, in San Fernando City, Pampanga province, Philippines, April 19, 2019

Frowned upon by the Church, the ritual crucifixions and self-flagellation in the north of the country are extreme affirmations of faith performed every Easter in Asia’s Catholic outpost.

Mr Wilfredo Salvador stared at the sky and appeared to mumble a prayer after the slight 62-year-old with wild grey hair and a long beard became the first local zealot this year to hang from a wooden cross.

Christian devotees are nailed to a cross during a reenactment of the Crucifixion of Christ during Good Friday and ahead of Easter in San Juan, Pampanga, on April 19, 2019.

“I will not stop this for as long as I am alive, because this is what gives me life,” said Mr Salvador, a fisherman who has been volunteering to be crucified for 14 straight years since recovering from a nervous breakdown.

Filipino devotees are nailed on wooden crosses by assistants costumed as Roman centurions during a crucifixion re-enactment before a crowd of witnesses on Good Friday

Assistants costumed as Roman centurions drove 8cm spikes through each of his hands and feet before the wooden cross was raised briefly for the crowds to see.

He was treated and bandaged at a first aid tent after the village square ritual – then nonchalantly walked back home.

Nine other men and a woman were set to be nailed to wooden crosses in three other villages in the region within the day, the local tourism office told reporters.

Earlier Friday (April 19), hundreds of barefoot men wearing crowns of twigs and black shrouds walked silently on the side of a village road in the scorching tropical heat, flogging their backs with bamboo strips tied to a length of rope.

A Catholic devotee is nailed on a wooden cross during a ritual performed during Good Friday, which one tourist described as 'very intense'

While many of the 80 million Filipino Catholics spend Good Friday at church or with family, others go to these extreme lengths to atone for sins or seek divine intervention in a spectacle that has become a major tourist attraction.

“This is a religious vow. I will do this every year for as long as I am able,” 38-year-old truck driver Resty David, who has been self-flagellating for half his life, told AFP.

Filipino penitent Ruben Enaje reacts as he is nailed to a wooden cross for the 33rd year on Good Friday in the Philippines

He said he also hoped it would convince God to cure his cancer-stricken brother.

Blood and sweat soaked through the penitents’ pants with some spectators grimacing with each strike of the lash.

Some hid behind their companions to avoid the splatter of gore and ripped flesh.

Filipino penitent Ruben Enaje is taken down after being nailed to a wooden cross for the 33rd year on Good Friday in San Pedro Cutud village, San Fernando, Philippines

Many in the crowds had driven for hours to witness the crucifixions – the frenzied climax of the day’s gory spectacle that Catholics say is a re-enactment the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

German tourist Annika Ehlers, 24, was among them.

A tattooed Christian devotee has his back whipped until he bleeds using bamboo strips on a street in San Juan on Good Friday

“I’m a little bit overwhelmed. It’s very intense, I haven’t expected something like this,” she told AFP after watching Mr Salvador’s crucifixion.

The bloody spectacle has played out every year in villages around the city of San Fernando, about 70km north of Manila, despite Church entreaties to spend Lent in quiet prayer and reflection.

“The crucifixion and death of Jesus are more than enough to redeem humanity from the effects of sins. They are once in a lifetime events that need not be repeated,” Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines official Father Jerome Secillano said.

Filipino penitent Ruben Enaje reacts as he is nailed to a wooden cross for the 33rd year on Good Friday in San Pedro Cutud village, San Fernando

“Holy Week… is not the time to showcase man’s propensity for entertainment and Pharisaical tendencies,” he added.

Nearly 80 per cent of people in the Philippines are Catholic, a legacy of the nation’s 300 years of Spanish colonial rule that ended at the turn of the 20th century.

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