Filipinos flock to churches for Simbang Gabi to pray for COVID-19 deliverance inquirer.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A queue at least 400m long had formed just outside the church s walls.
Over 2,000 worshippers eventually made it inside the church s cavernous hall and onto its sprawling grounds for the 4.30am mass.
Many more stood outside, behind its wrought-iron gates.
In normal times, the church could accommodate up to 10,000 devotees. But these are extraordinary times.
Across this predominantly Catholic archipelago, churches began holding pre-dawn masses - known here as the misa de gallo or mass of the rooster - in the run-up to Christmas.
The masses will be held for nine straight days from Wednesday (Dec 16), culminating with the midnight mass on Christmas Eve.
As the bells of a big Catholic church just south of Manila began to toll at around 4am yesterday, thousands were already at the gates of the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
More than 2,000 worshippers eventually made it inside the church s cavernous hall and onto its sprawling grounds for the 4.30am mass.
Many more stood outside, behind its wrought-iron gates.
In normal times, the church can accommodate up to 10,000 devotees. But these are extraordinary times.
Across the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic archipelago, churches have begun holding pre-dawn masses - known as the misa de gallo or mass of the rooster - in the run-up to Christmas.