Having read his hapless plight and ruthless murder from a lot of articles online I got longstanding goosebumps and also had emotionally cried for his painful sufferings and indomitable patience. He died trying to protect his master, an old Jesuit priest who brought him during their missionary works in Guam.
Young Pedro was thought to come from Visayas but his actual hometown was been obscured because there was no legal evidences to support it but findings says that in the 1600's most of the Calungsods were living in Central Visayas especially near Cebu.
The young Pedro was about 14 years old when he joined the Jesuit mission in Guam and had served the group of Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores who was also declared a saint long time ago. He travelled with Fr. Diego as a catechist spreading the word of God. As a teenager he also is a carpenter, an acolyte, and help for the Jesuit priests.
His martyrdom started when the native Chamoros of Guam had resisted the Christian faith. The head of the tribe had declared war with the Jesuit priests and eventually killed them including the young Calungsod (who is 17 years old when he died)and had tied all their bodies with rocks and throw them to the sea.
He had a chance to escape the fierce natives but he chose to stay and defend Fr. Diego while spreading the word of God and was eventually killed during the altercation. This had established his martyrdom and had even strengthened his cause to be canonized as a saint.
It took thirty years for him to get approved or declared as a saint only not until 1997 when one miraculous involvement in helping an older lady back to life after being declared by a professional doctor as a brain dead patient. The doctor had invoked the then beatified Pedro Calungsod by the blessed Pope John II in 2000 and miraculously had helped the old lady back to normal life and without complications.
After Vatican had send a team to investigate the miraculous event and after several years of studies about his works and sufferings for the Christian faith, thirty years later, which is October 20, 2012 at 0900H the young Pedro Calungsod was not a beato anymore but is a young saint worthy of emulation by the young Filipino Christians as well as the Christian people of the Philipinnes.
Although it will take more years for the Philippines to have another saint, the canonization of Saint Pedro Calungsod as a martyr and inspiration of the young and as the second saint of the Philippines had given a lot of hopes for the Filipinos and had given them boost their spiritual pride, as well as show to the whole world that Filipinos can be also capable of achieving sainthood.
I myself had drawn a lot of inspiration from this canonization and had high regard with the young saint as well as appreciate him for his noble work. If Saint Pedro Calungsod had achieved sainthood for sure many Filipinos will aspire to follow his footsteps and be an inspiration for everybody.
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