4-km procession in Cebu marks Pedro Calungsod’s 2nd canonization anniversary

A four-kilometer procession was held Monday night in Cebu to mark the second anniversary of the canonization of Pedro Calungsod, the Philippines' second saint.

 

The procession started at the San Pedro Calungsod Chapel and passed through Mambaling SRP Road, GMA Cebu's Bexmae Jumao-as reported.

 

Some of the devotees brought small images of Calungsod during the procession.

 

"Ang personal intention namin na sana magka-baby na kami," said devotee Mafet Cabanatan, who also said she wished for peace on earth.

 

Msgr. Vicente Tupas Jr. of the San Pedro Calungsod Chapel said Calungsod's devotion to the faith should be an example to Filipinos.

 

"Nagpaalala sa atin si San Pedro Calungsod sa mga nagawa niya para sa simbahan and for the people he is actually great example for us bilang santo at bayani," he said.

 

Calungsod was canonized on Oct. 21, 2012. He was a teenage Catholic missionary who died a martyr in Guam more than three centuries ago.

 

He was proclaimed saint with six others during a public consistory, or an assembly of Roman Catholic cardinals, celebrated by the Pope at the St. Peter’s Square.

 

He was beatified and given the honorific "Blessed" in 2000.

 

Calungsod was a teenager from the Visayas who joined Spanish Jesuit missionaries led by Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores to the Mariana Islands in 1668.

 

On April 2, 1672, Calungsod, believed to be 17 years old at that time, went to Tumon village in Guam to aid San Vitores in baptizing a newborn baby.

 

The infant’s father and the village chief, Mata’pang, supposedly refused to have the sacrament performed based on the belief that the baptismal water was poisonous. The baby’s Christian mother, however, still gave her consent to the missionaries to baptize her child.

 

Upon learning about the baptism, Mata’pang and another villager named Hirao supposedly assaulted Calungsod and San Vitores. The Filipino martyr was hit by a spear, and ultimately killed by a blow to the head with a sword.

 

San Vitores was also killed during the encounter. The bodies of the missionaries were supposedly thrown into the sea and were never recovered. — Joel Locsin/VC, GMA News