After 25 years, PHL has a new saint

Almost 25 years to the day Lorenzo Ruiz became the Philippines' first saint, the country has a new saint—Pedro Calungsod, the young catechist and martyr from the Visayas, who was canonized on Sunday. Saint Lorenzo, a married lay person who was martyred in Japan in 1637, was canonized by Blessed John Paul II in Rome on October 18, 1987. Saint Lorenzo's feast day falls on September 28. Saint Pedro, a 17-year-old catechist who was martyred in Guam in 1672, was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI also in Rome on October 21. Saint Pedro's feast day is April 2. The feast day of saints is generally on the day they died, except for a few like the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8) and Saint John the Evangelist (June 24), whose feast days are celebrated on the day they were born. Saint Pedro was canonized with six other new saints: (1) Jacques Berthieu, a French martyr and priest of the Society of Jesus;   (2) Giovanni Battista Piamarta, an Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth; (3) Maria del Carmen, Spanish Foundress of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching;   (4) Marianne Cope, a German religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse, US; (5) Kateri Tekakwitha, an American laywoman and the first Native American saint; and (6) Anna Schaffer, a German laywoman. According to a news article on the site www.sanpedrocalungsod.com, Saint Pedro's image occupied the second highest place of honor at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome during Sunday's canonization. Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson, Vice-Postulator for the Canonization Cause of Blessed Pedro Calungsod, said the ranking of the saints is decided by three factors: (1) martyrs rank higher than non-martyrs; (2) bishops rank higher than priests, and (3) priests rank higher than religious, and laypeople. During the canonization on Sunday, Saint Pedro ranked next only to Saint Jacques Berthieu, a Jesuit priest who was martyred like him. Part of the canonization rites in Rome included the offering at the altar of the relics of the newly canonized saints. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines a relic as "some object, notably part of the body or clothes, remaining as a memorial of a departed saint." Only six relics were offered during Sunday's canonization because there was no "first class" relic of Saint Pedro, whose body was thrown into the sea after he was killed. Other Filipino martyrs Another article on www.sanpedrocalungsod.com said in the Guam mission where Saint Pedro was killed, there were "20 or 25 nameless catechists, most of them Filipinos, who were killed during that turbulent time.” The article said Saint Pedro had the "good fortune" to be killed with the head of the mission, Jesuit Father Diego Luis de San Vitores. Their deaths were well-documented. "On April 2, 1672, Calungsod was martyred alongside Father San Vitores after the Jesuit baptized the infant daughter of Chamorro Chief Mata’pang. While Father San Vitores baptized the girl in her mother’s presence, it was without the consent of the chief," the report said. "After learning of the baptism, Mata’pang enlisted the assistance of Chamorro warrior Hirao, and together they attacked and killed Father San Vitores and Calungsod. Their deaths occurred on the Saturday before Passion Sunday," it added. A monument now stands off the coast of Tumon, Guam, near the site where San Vitores and Saint Pedro were martyred.   Jesuit Father Francis Hezel, author of several publications on the Jesuit missions in the Pacific, said, “We think that there were about 30 or 35 lay people altogether." “These people were handpicked. They had a personal association with the Jesuits that they were coming to serve,” Hezel added.   The article said young men in the 1600s who were contemplating entering the religious life would travel with missionaries. "Catholics make up 85 percent of the population of Guam, which was ceded to the U.S. from Spain in 1898. Chamorros, the island’s indigenous inhabitants, constitute 37 percent of the population, while Filipinos make up 26 percent," the report said. The canonization process According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "the Catholic Church canonizes or beatifies only those whose lives have been marked by the exercise of heroic virtue, and only after this has been proved by common repute for sanctity and by conclusive arguments."   To be canonized, a miracle performed by the beatified person must be verified by the Catholic Church after a thorough investigation. A miracle that happened through the miraculous intercession of Saint Pedro in a hospital in Cebu on March 26, 2003 was the one that paved the way for his canonization. A doctor asked the help of then-Blessed Pedro in asking God to save a 49-year-old comatose patient  with a Glasglow scale score of three, or the deepest state of coma. It renders a person unable to talk, open their eyes or move the body.   Hours after the doctor prayed to Blessed Pedro, the patient recovered.   After conducting a thorough investigation, this miracle was verified and accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. - BM, GMA News