Breaking

Pedro Calungsod to Become 2nd Filipino Saint

Pedro Calungsod is set to be canonized as the second Filipino saint by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.

According to the Vatican Information Service, Calungsod (1654 – April 2, 1672), who got beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000, was a “Filipino lay catechist and martyr.”

He was a 17-year old Roman Catholic Filipino migrant, sacristan and missionary catechist from Cebu, who along with Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, suffered religious persecution and martyrdom on Guam for their missionary work in 1672. Through Calungsod and San Vitores’ missionary efforts, many native Chamorros converted to Roman Catholicism.

Last Saturday, February 18, Pope Benedict XVI officially announced at Saint Peter’s Basilica during a mass that Calungsod will be canonized on October 21 together with 6 others.

Last October, the Filipino martyr passed the third and final stage towards sainthood after the Vatican verified a second miracle attributed to him—the healing of a businesswoman from the Visayas who fell into a coma in 2003.

After his canonization, Calungsod will become the second Filipino saint 24 years after the beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz, a missionary martyred in Japan in 1637.

Calungsod was killed at the age of 18 while doing his missionary work on April 2, 1627, a day before Palm Sunday that year.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.