. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ."Blessed Pedro Calungsod" was a young native of the Visayan Region of the Philippines. Very little is known about him, but he was one of the boy cathechists went with some Spanish Jesuit missionaries from the Philippines to the Ladrones Islands in the Western Pacific in 1668 to evangelize the Chamorros.

Life in the Ladrones was hard, but the missionaries perseverd and the mission was blessed with many conversions. The missionaries later renamed the islands “Marianieas” in honor of the Blessed Virgin and the Regent of Spain, Maria Ana, who was the benefactress of the mission.

But soon a Chinese healer named Choco, envious of the missionaries prestige, started a rumour that the baptismal water was poisonous. And since some sickly Chamarro infants died after baptism, many believed the calumniator and apostatized. Choco’s campaign was supported by the macanjas (sorcerers) and the urritaos (young male prostitutes) who, along with the apostates, began persecuting the missionaries.

The worst assault occurred on April 2, 1672. On around seven o’clock in the morning, Pedro – by then about 17 years old - and the superior of the Mission, Father Diego Luis de San Vitores, came to the village of Tomhom on the island of Guam. They were told that a baby girl was recently born, so they went to ask the child’s father, Matapang to bring the infant for baptism. Matapang was a Christian and a friend of the missionaries, but apostatized, he angrily refused.

To give Matapang some time to reconsider, Father Diego and Pedro gathered the children and some adults at the nearby shore and started chanting with them the truths of the Catholic faith. They invited Matapang to join them, but he shouted back that he was angry with God and was already fed up with Christian teachings.

Determine to kill the missionaries, Matapang tried to enlist in his cause another villager named Hirao, who was not a Christian. Hirao refused, remembering the missionaries kindness, but when Matapang branded him a coward, he got angry and agreed. Meanwhile Father Diego and Pedro baptized the infant, with the consent of the Christian mother.

When Matapang learned of the baptism, he became even more furious. He violently hurled spears first at Pedro, but he skirted the spears. The witness said that Pedro had every chance to escape, but did not want to leave Father Dieog alone. Those who knew Pedro believe that he would have defeated his aggressors and freed both himself and Father Diego if he had some weapons, but Father Diego never allow his companions to carry arms.

Finally a spears hit Pedro’s chest and he fell to the ground. Hirao immediately charge towards him, killing him with the blow of a cutlass to the head. Father Diego gave Pedro sacramental absolution. Afterwards the assassins killed him as well. Matapang took Father Diego’s crucifix and pounded it with stone, blaspheming God. Then both assassins stripped the martyr’s bodies, took them out on a proa and threw them into the sea. The remains were never recovered.

Father Diego Luis de San Vitores was beatified in 1985. It was his beatification that brought the memory of Pedro Calungsod to our day.

(Source: L’Osservatore Romano: March 8, 2000, p2)

.....................Church Construction Site, Cantabaco, Toledo City, Province of Cebu, Phlippines....................


















...................September 22, 2007 Charity Show, Mississauga, Province of Ontario, Canada.................







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