Before Magellan and his expedition reached the Philippines in 1521, the locality was only a small village of little over a hundred natives who were called "Tirongs." By nature, these primitive inhabitants were sea-faring warriors. In their fast and picturesque sailboats, they traveled to adjoining and distant places, most particularly to settlements and villages along the Ilocos Coast in
Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur,
La Union,
Pangasinan and even
Zambales. In those adventures, the “Tirongs“ always challenged the people encountered to tribal wars and fought skirmishes against them. Often, those sturdy and brave natives came out victorious. Even in their daily chores, those people showed their ferocious characteristics. When the Spanish came,
Juan de Salcedo was sent to explore and colonize the Ilocos territory during the early years of the Spanish regime. He found the “Tirongs” of Sinait in apogee of the social state. Small battles were a daily occurrence so that in the year 1535, when the locality was organized and established as a “Pueblo.” Salcedo named the new community as “SIN-NAIT”, a word in the local tongue which means “CONTEST”. As a pueblo, Sinait embraced and included in its territorial limit such distant places as "Rancheria de Paur," now the Municipality of
Nueva Era in Ilocos Norte, and southern barrios of
Badoc of the same province. The vast territory, however, was reduced to its present 78 square kilometers. In 1575, the natives fully realized the hardships of pronouncing the term “Sin-nait” and to go away with the trouble, Salcedo declared that one of the letter “N” be dropped. Since then, this Municipality has been called “Sinait”. Nevertheless, it was only in 1913 when the same was officially adopted by the government upon the initiative of the late Don Calixto Cabacungan. The Municipality Council enacted a resolution to the effect that Sinait was adopted as the official name of the community. This resolution was duly approved by the Provincial Board of Ilocos Sur and by the now defunct Philippine Legislature.
The Santo Cristo Milagroso Sinait houses the Sanctuary of the Miraculous Statue of the Black Nazarene (El Santo Cristo Milagroso), fondly called by its residents as "Apo Lakay," and a treasure of Ilocandia. History traces the life-sized statue to
Nagasaki, Japan. It was probably sent floating in the sea by missionaries operating in secret in Japan to escape the destruction of churches in Nagasaki in 1614 on orders of the
Tokugawa Bakufu. The box was found by local fishermen in the shores of Barangay Dadalaquiten Norte, on the boundary between Sinait and nearby Paguetpet (La Virgen Milagrosa),
Badoc, in the year 1620, and fishermen from both towns carried it ashore. They found two statues inside the box—a statue of the Black Nazarene, and a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to legend, the fishermen from Sinait mysteriously were unable to move the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but had no problems moving the Statue of the Black Nazarene. The fishermen from Badoc, however, were able to move the Statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (later called the La Virgen Milagrosa) with ease, as they were unable to carry the image of the Black Nazarene. They took the statues to their respective towns and were venerated. In 1656, with a spreading devotion to the Santo Cristo Milagroso due to its miraculous powers, the Black Crucifix was taken to the capital town of
Vigan, since an epidemic was raging there and through the devotion of the faithful, many got cured. Because of this, it is considered as an intercessor of all kinds of affliction and sickness. In 1660, because of the growing veneration to the image, the faithful begun the construction of a permanent edifice to house it. It took the people of Sinait eight years to construct the church with funds provides by the Spanish Audiencia. Today the landing site of Apo Lakay is marked by a chapel at Lugo Beach in Barangay Dadalaquiten Norte, and is a place of pilgrimage for devotees, as with the nearby chapel marking La Virgen Milagrosa's landing site. ==Geography==