page_title: Cebu
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Cebu / Demographics / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu City Picture taken by Magalhães on March 23 2006
context_page_description: Cebu is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 surrounding islands and islets. Its capital is Cebu City, "the Queen City of the South", the oldest city and first capital of the Philippines, which is politically independent from the provincial government.
  The Cebu Metropolitan Area or Metro Cebu is the second largest metropolitan area in the Philippines with Cebu City as the main center of commerce, trade, education and industry in the Visayas. Being one of the most developed provinces in the Philippines, in a decade it has transformed into a global hub for business processing services, tourism, shipping, furniture-making, and heavy industry. Mactan–Cebu International Airport, located on Mactan Island, is the second busiest airport in the Philippines.
context_section_description: The majority of its population are Roman Catholic followed by roughly 95% of Cebuanos. There are also followers of Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
  Cebu is the capital of the Catholic faith by virtue of being the first Christian city, the first capital of the Spanish East Indies, and the birthplace of Christianity and the Philippine Church. Pope John Paul II, in his Homily for Families in Cebu (19 February 1981), called the island as the birthplace of Christianity in the Philippines.
  The image of Santo Niño de Cebú (Holy Child of Cebu), the oldest Christian image in the Philippines, is enshrined and venerated at the Basilica of Santo Niño. According to Philippine historical documents, the statue of the Santo Niño (Holy Child) was given to the wife of the Rajah of Cebu by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The friendship is depicted in Cebu's cultural event, the Sinulog where street parades and loud drum beats preceded by a Christian Mass is celebrated every third Sunday of January. Cebu has a Roman Catholic Archdiocese and has several major churches, including the Basilica Minor del Santo Niño de Cebu, Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, Santo Rosario Parish Church, San José–Recoletos Church, Sacred Heart Church, Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, National Shrine of Our Lady of the Rule, National Shrine of Saint Joseph, Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Cebu, San Nicolas de Tolentino Church, and other Christian churches, as well as several other non-Catholic churches, mosques and temples.
caption: The Basílica Menor del Santo Niño in Cebu, the first church built in the Philippines. Named by the Holy See as the "Mother and Head... of all Churches of the Philippine Islands".[26]
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