COMMENT: Canonizations 21 Oct. 2012

Seven Saints

Saint Pedro Calungsod.
A COMMENT: a friend said that the new saint, St. Pedro, was seventeen years old. 
He described as teenage. 
"devote(d) his teenage years to teaching the faith as a lay catechist," (Pope Benedict xvi)

TIMELINE: Pedro Calungsod

Philippine Daily Inquirer 
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/292768/timeline-pedro-calungsod#

Sunday, October 21st, 2012    

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1654. Pedro Calungsod is born in the Visayas. Very little is known about Calungsod, but based on documents, these Philippine towns claim to be his probable birthplace: Ginatilan and Tuburan in Cebu; Loboc in Bohol, and Leon in Iloilo.

Cheers went up in the crowd when Benedict declared Pedro Calungsod a saint and worthy of veneration by the entire Catholic Church. Benedict named six other saints Sunday, some of them missionaries like the devout boy from central Cebu province. They were Jacques Berthieu, a Jesuit missionary in Madagascar who was martyred; Giovanni Battista Piamarta, founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth; Maria Carmen Salles, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception; Marianne Cope, Sister of Saint Francis of Syracuse; Kateri Tekakwitha, companion of the Jesuit missionaries in North America; and Anne Schaeffer, a German laywoman and mystic.

JUNE 16, 1668. A Jesuit mission led by Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores arrives at the Ladrones Islands, later named Marianas Islands, which are part of the Cebu Diocese. The mission includes some 30 Filipino laymen and the young Visayan Calungsod, who is one of the volunteer helpers and catechists.  

Mission helpers like Calungsod are tasked to accompany the priests in their missionary trips and carry their Mass kits and other provisions, often walking barefoot over rough terrain, hills and jungles. Jesuit documents say San Vitores had chosen Calungsod as his “faithful companion” and that apart from assisting him during the journey, Calungsod also helped San Vitores during Mass and with baptisms and other rites.

It is said that by the end of their mission, they were able to baptize over 13,000 natives.

APRIL 2, 1672. Calungsod dies while trying to defend San Vitores when the natives attack them. The missionaries are hunted after the natives learn that San Vitores baptized a chief’s daughter without his consent.

Calungsod dies after a spear pierces his chest and a machete blow splits his skull. His body, like San Vitores’, is then bound with ropes, tied to a heavy rock and thrown into the sea.

MAY 3, 1672. News about the death of San Vitores, Calungsod and other members of the mission reach Manila. A solemn Te Deum is sung at the Manila Cathedral as the grieving Catholic community thanks God for “the grace of martyrdom” given to Calungsod, San Vitores and their companions.

MARCH 5, 2000. Calungsod is beatified at St. Peter’s Square in Rome. In his homily during the beatification, Pope John Paul II calls on the youth to emulate Calungsod: “From his childhood, Pedro Calungsod declared himself unwaveringly for Christ and responded generously to his call.”

“Young people today can draw encouragement and strength from the example of Pedro, whose love of Jesus inspired him to devote his teenage years to teaching the faith as a lay catechist,” the Pope says.  + + +