The BasΓlica Menor del Santo NiΓ±o de Cebu , Minor Basilica of the Holy Child of Cebu, commonly known as Santo NiΓ±o Basilica, is a basilica in Cebu City in the Philippines that was founded in 1565 by Fray AndrΓ©s de Urdaneta and Fray Diego de Herrera. It is the oldest Roman Catholic church in the country, allegedly built on the spot where the image of the Santo NiΓ±o de Cebu was found during the expedition of Miguel LΓ³pez de Legazpi. This image of the Child Jesus is the same one presented by Ferdinand Magellan to the chief consort of Rajah Humabon on the occasion of their royal Baptism to Roman Catholicism on 14 April 1521. The image was found by a soldier named Juan de Camuz forty years later, preserved in a wooden box, after Legazpi had razed a local village. When Pope Paul VI made the church a basilica in 1965, he declared it to be the symbol of the birth and growth of Christianity in the Philippines. The present building was completed from 1739 - 1740 and was designated by the H