Santuario del Santo Cristo

The Santuario del Santo Cristo, also known as the Church of San Juan del Monte is a church and convento in San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines. The shrine was built in 1602-1604 by the Dominicans on land that was donated to the order. Both the church and convento were burnt and destroyed during the Chinese insurrection of 1639, and later rebuilt in 1641. It was again destroyed in July 1763 as Britain briefly occupied Manila during the Seven Years' War. The current church and convento were built in 1774, and used as a shelter by Katipuneros during the 1898 Philippine Revolution against the Spanish Empire. It has since been renovated many times until the 1990s.The shrine is the seat of the Cofradia del Santísimo Cristo de San Juan del Monte ("Confraternity of the Holy Christ of Saint John of the Mountain"), which received papal approval on March 4, 1648.HistoryArrival of the DominicansThe Dominicans arrived in the Spanish East Indies in 1587 and had founded the Santo Domingo Convent in Spanish Manila (now known as Intramuros). Fifteen years after their arrival, the Dominicans went to the hill country east of Manila in what is now San Juan, and found clusters of small nipa huts. The area was the property of a certain Spaniard named Captain Julian de Cuenca, who had been granted an encomienda along the banks of the San Juan River where cattle were bred and raised.