St. Pedro Calungsod

Today is the feast day of St. Pedro Calungsod! A teenage missionary martyr and our second Filipino saint. 

Pope St. John Paul II said: 

“...From his childhood, Pedro Calungsod declared himself unwaveringly for Christ and responded generously to his call. Young people today can draw encouragement and strength from the example of Pedro, whose love of Jesus inspired him to devote his teenage years to teaching the faith as a lay catechist. Leaving family and friends behind, Pedro willingly accepted the challenge put to him by Fr. Diego de San Vitores to join him on the Mission to the Chamorros. In a spirit of faith, marked by strong Eucharistic and Marian devotion, Pedro undertook the demanding work asked of him and bravely faced the many obstacles and difficulties he met.”

St. Pedro Calungsod was born in 1654, he attended a Jesuit boarding school where he learned the catechism as well as the Spanish language. He also learned skills including painting, dancing, singing, acting, and carpentry skills that would guide his future missionary work.

When he was a young teenager, he was chosen to accompany Spanish Jesuit missionaries to Guam. Missionary life was really rough- provisions didn’t regularly arrive and the jungles were hard to navigate. But there, St. Pedro worked with the priest Diego de San Vitores and they baptized many locals.

Shortly after their arrival, rumors began spreading that the baptismal water used by missionaries was poisonous. Any deaths of baptized infants were blamed on them. When a chief found out that they had baptized his baby girls, he was furious and had them killed.

St. Pedro was only 17 years old when he died.

St. Pedro Calungsod, pray for us.

Image from a stained-glass window in Cubao Cathedral