Manila, Philippines - Seventeen people were nailed to the cross in a macabre re-enactment of Jesus Christ's suffering and death on Good Friday in the Roman Catholic Philippines.
Dozens of Filipino men wearing hoods over their faces and crowns of thorns also flaggelated their backs with whips tipped with shards of glass and blades to atone for their sins.
The annual Good Friday ritual in the remote rural town of Cutud, 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of Manila, is frowned upon by the Catholic church but has become an an annual Holy Week attraction for hundreds of camera-toting tourists.
The event started out with Filipino actors dressed as Roman Centurions arresting a Jesus Christ character, who then led the penitents up a two-kilometer dirt road to a paddy field where they were crucified with five-inch nails.
Ruben Enaje, 45, who played the central Jesus Christ character, was nailed on the cross for the 19th year Friday. He said it was his way of atoning for his sins, and for thanking God for his blessings.
Enaje's face contorted in pain as the nails were driven to his palms and feet. He was made to hang in the cross for nearly 10 minutes before being pulled down as a throng of tourists gasped in disbelief.
He was later rushed to an ambulance.
Ten others were crucified in Cutud while there were six in the nearby village of Saint Lucia, including Mary Jane Mamangon, 30, the only woman in the group.
Mamangon fainted after crying out in pain while she was being nailed and paramedics had to also rush to her aid.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines earlier this week called on Filippinos not to "join the flagellants or crucifixions".
Archbishop Oscar Cruz said: "such extreme acts of piety are no longer required."
"It is enough that Jesus Christ was the one who did it for us."
For decades young men and the occasional woman have converged on Cutud, whipping their backs until covered in blood to atone their sins.
The Philippines is Asia's biggest bastion of Catholicism, with about 80 percent of its 84 million population Catholics.
The annual spectacle began in Cutud in 1955, and has been copied throughout the Philippines since. It has become a major Good Friday draw with tourists flying in from all over the world to watch.
"We cannot prevent people from watching the event," said local village chief Zoilo Castro, defending the tradition.
In Cutud the ritual began around midmorning as masked young men, barefoot and stripped to the waist gathered in side streets where organisers bloodied their backs with glass embedded into wooden paddles.
The paddle is pushed into the back a number of times to get the blood flowing and in small groups they paraded up and down the dusty main street beating their backs with with bamboo tipped whips until the skin tears.
The reason why so many come back to be crucified is usually to thank God for curing them of a sickness or a sickness in the family.
While the Church and government may frown on such rituals taking place on Good Friday it hasn't stopped the Central Luzon police chief, Rowland Albano, from taking advantage of it.
Albano told the Manila Times that he would exonerate 20 policemen who were absent without leave if they carried wooden crosses around the camp but those facing more serious charges would have to submit themselves to crucifixion.