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.

He and his wife thought it the right time to show their family's gratitude to the Dominicans, and so they offered a nearly three-hectare plot of wooded land in his hacienda along the San Juan River.

The Order gratefully accepted the offer, and the work began, with a small chapel to San Juan Bautista del Monte built after several months.

Independent of Santo Domingo Convent, it was then called the House of San Juan Bautista del Monte.

News of the image's miracles spread to Manila and the surrounding areas, particularly the neighbouring Franciscan parish and town of Santa Ana, to which the present-day cities of San Juan and Mandaluyong were once villages.

[5] The Confraternity of the Santo Cristo was established and approved by Pope Innocent X in 1648, roughly 45 years after the arrival of the Dominicans in San Juan.

The first convento and the church on the site must have been simple and unpretentious, in keeping with the rustic surroundings, and yet well suited as places for convalescing and aged Dominicans from Manila.

In 1641, Oquendo decided to rebuild the church and convento of San Juan using solid materials such as adobe, which was found in the area.

He further notes: "It is all painted al oleo en jaspe (imitation marble) from the floor to the ceiling and adorned with many Latin and Spanish verses and texts from the Holy Scriptures.

As British troops sacked Manila in 1763, the shrine was destroyed as the city's churches and other public buildings were looted and vandalised.

The shrine and the convento, along with many houses in San Juan del Monte, did not fare any better, as these were ransacked then set alight by British soldiers.

[4] Negotiations on elevating the shrine's status to that of a parish began in 1941 between Michael J. O'Doherty, the 27th Archbishop of Manila, and the Dominicans.

The creation of the Santuario del Santo Cristo Parish and its bounds were agreed upon at a meeting in the Archbishop's Palace on November 4, 1941.