0 Catholics celebrate Saint Pedro Calungsod’s first feast day

Catholics on Saturday celebrated the first feast day of Saint Pedro Calungsod – the second Filipino saint -- who was canonized only in October last year.

Calungsod is the patron of Filipino youth, altar boys, the Philippines, overseas Filipino workers, Guam, and Cebuanos, according to the religious information site Catholic Online.

Although Calungsod's actual feast day falls on April 2, the celebration was moved to Saturday (March 23).

April 2 happens to fall within the so-called "Easter Octave" or eight days after Easter Sunday, considered as the greatest Catholic feast.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Calungsod's feast day was moved to an earlier date, March 23, as Easter Octave is a greater feast than the Filipino saint's.

“We invite young people to participate in whatever way they can as dioceses, parishes will give considerable time and attention to celebrate the memorial of [St.] Pedro Calungsod,” Fr. Conegundo Garganta, Episcopal Commission on Youth executive director, said in a statement on Thursday.

Day of death

The feast days of saints usually commemorate the dates of their death. In Calungsod's case, he was martyred on April 2, 1672.

According to the Calungsod website — pedrocalungsod.org — he was a teenage boy from the Visayas who went with some Spanish Jesuit missionaries from the Philippines to the Ladrones Islands in 1668 to evangelize the Chamorros.

"Very little is known about him. We do not even know where exactly in the Visayas he came from or who his parents were," the site said.

Some Chamorros were against the evangelization being conducted by the missionaries and began to kill some of them.

On April 2, 1672, a day before Passion Sunday of that year, Pedro, then 17 years old, and Padre Diego Luís de San Vitores, the superior of the Mission, went to Guam to evangelize the natives.

Just after the baptism of an infant, Padre Diego and his companions were attacked, including Calungsod.

Calungsod's website said spears were violently hurled at the young Filipino catechist.

"The lad skirted the darting spears with remarkable dexterity. Witnesses said that Pedro had all the chances to escape because he was very agile, but he did not want to leave Padre Diego alone," the site said.

"Those who personally knew Pedro believed that he would have defeated his fierce aggressors and would have freed both himself and Padre Diego if only he had some weapon because he was a valiant boy but Padre Diego never allowed his companions to carry arms," it added.

Prayer to Saint Pedro Calungsod

Here is the prayer to Saint Pedro Calungsod:

San Pedro Calungsod student, catechist, young migrant, missionary, faithful friend, martyr, you inspire us by your fidelity in time of adversity; by your courage in teaching the Faith in the midst of hostility; and by your love in shedding your blood for the sake of the Gospel.

Make our prayers your own (pause to mention your intentions) and intercede for us before the throne of Mercy and Grace so that, as we experience the help of Heaven, we may be encouraged to live and proclaim the Gospel here on earth. Amen.

Rouchelle Dinglasan, VVP, GMA News

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