Vatican: PHL's Blessed Pedro Calungsod, six others to be canonized

The Vatican on Tuesday (Manila time) said Blessed Pedro Calungsod of Cebu and six others will be canonized. However, no definite date has been set for the canonization rites.   A Twitter entry of the Vatican's news site posted a link to a news story that listed six other candidates for canonization, including:

• Blessed Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth and of the Congregation of the Humble Sister Servants of the Lord (1841-1913);

• Blessed Jacques Berthieu, French martyr and priest of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (1838-1896);

• Blessed Maria del Carmen (born Maria Salles y Barangueras), Spanish foundress of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching (1848-1911);

• Blessed Maria Anna Cope, nee Barbara, German religious of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis in Syracuse USA (1838-1918);

• Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, American laywoman (1656-1680), and

• Blessed Anna Schaffer, German laywoman (1882-1925).

"(Pope Benedict XVI) received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of decrees (for sainthood)," a Vatican news release said.   Vatican indicated listed Calungsod, a Filipino lay catechist and martyr (1654-1672), among the saints and blessed who have been said to have performed miracles. No other details were mentioned about the "miracles."   Calungsod was doing missionary work in Guam in 1672 when he was killed at age 17. He was beatified on March 5, 2000, by the late Pope John Paul II, who was himself beatified on May 1 this year. He was a companion of Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores to the Marianas Islands.   Calungsod and Diego San Vitores were both caught and killed after baptizing an infant and mother who converted to the Catholic faith. Calungsod, if canonized, will be the Philippines' second saint. The country's first saint — Saint Lorenzo Ruiz — was canonized and elevated to sainthood on October 18, 1987,  Ruiz was a layman, with two sons and a daughter.  He was born in Binondo, Manila between 1600 to 1610. His father was Chinese while his mother was a Filipina. On September  27, 1637, he was martyred along with other missionaries in Nagasaki, Japan.  In a Catholic News Service article, Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, said, "Beatification and canonization are not recognitions of someone's superior understanding of theology, nor of the great works he or she accomplished." "Declaring someone a saint, the church attests to the fact that he or she lived the Christian virtues in a truly extraordinary way and is a model to be imitated by others," Amato said. - VVP, GMA News