Pedro Calungsod a saint at last

By on 1:32 AM

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday declared Filipino martyr Pedro Calungsod a saint in a canonization ceremony at St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City.

Cheers went up in St. Peter’s Square from the sizeable Filipino expat crowd that came out in droves for Sunday’s Mass when Benedict declared Calungsod a saint and worthy of veneration by the entire Catholic Church.

Aside from Calungsod, six other Blesseds were canonized: Jacques Berthieu, a Jesuit missionary in Madagascar who was martyred; Blessed Giovanni Battista Piamarta, founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth; Blessed Maria Carmen Salles, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception; Blessed Marianne Cope, Sister of Saint Francis of Syracuse; Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, companion of the Jesuit missionaries in North America; and Blessed Anne Schaeffer, a German laywoman and mystic.

Many Filipino faithful are particularly devoted to Calungsod, who as a teenager went with some Spanish Jesuit missionaries to Guam in 1668 to convert the Chamorros natives.

Thousands of Filipinos celebrated Calungsod’s sainthood with Masses, processions, stage plays, religious shows and the launching of postal stamps bearing his image and a map of his journey as a young Catholic missionary to the Pacific islands, where he was killed while spreading his faith more than 300 years ago.

“This is a day of great spiritual joy and national pride,” Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s spokeswoman, Abigail Valte said. “We join the Catholic world on this day of solemn commemoration and celebration.”

Celebrations across the Philippines were centered in Manila, the capital, and in Cebu’s town of Ginatilan. Large screens were installed in church compounds to allow Filipinos to watch Calungsod’s canonization at the Vatican. Calungsod’s portraits were displayed in churches and many bought and carried his statues.

Philippine TV networks ran documentaries about Calungsod’s life and sainthood, and the country’s leading newspapers ran stories of his canonization, portraying him as a model for young Filipinos.

Details of Calungsod’s life are scarce, but according to legend, when he and the mission superior, the Rev. Diego Luis de San Vitores, tried to baptize a baby in 1672, the child’s father angrily refused and, with the help of other natives, began throwing spears at them both.

They were both killed and their bodies thrown into the ocean.