Read on Teddy Boy Locsin Jr.'s article:
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/46296/teodoro-l--locsin-jr---pedro-calungsod-the-patron-saint-of-boys
TEODORO L. LOCSIN, JR. | Pedro Calungsod, the Patron
Saint of Boys
By: Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr.
October 23, 2012 4:20 PM
October 23, 2012 4:20 PM
The online news portal of TV5
That he was born, that he died, and how he died; these events are at least documented. That his death was glorious was recorded immediately after it and the process of his beatification to sainthood was started almost immediately, according to the postulator Cardinal Vidal.
The rest of the postulation for the sainthood of Pedro Calungsod is a farrago of speculation; such as whether he was born on this or that island of the Visayas which is worthless to know because he was to be made a saint of the one true holy apostolic and universal church and not of a provincial cult.
What is known from near contemporaneous records is that he was young; that he was trained as a catechist; that he may or may not have been able to read and write but, in the manner of the native charges of the Jesuits, he may have sung from memory the articles of our faith as the Jesuits taught the Amazon Indians to sing because they disdained to read the teachings of the Church. Sadly the Jesuits did not teach Pedro to fight as they taught the Indians of the Amazon who beat back the combined power of Portugal and Spain for a century.
It is recorded that Pedro was attached to a Jesuit mission to the Ladrones Islands or Thieves Islands, so named by those about to steal an archipelago; specifically the island of Guam.
His specific assignment was to carry baggage but not of the priests' belongings for Jesuits only had the clothes on their backs. The baggage contained the vessels to celebrate the mass. Pedro was therefore a baggage boy, a porter if you wish, but of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So he cannot be the patron saint of OFWs because he did it gratis. And he did what no OFW nor most people will do which is to share the fate of his master; to die for what his master stood. His master was the priest but the priest's commander was Christ. If anything San Pedro is the patron saint of logistic support services in the Catholic military order of the Society of Jesus.
Like Cebu, Guam was Catholic but violent. There were Chinese whispers - yes, the Chinese were already there - that baptismal water carried infection. While native herbalists who worshipped the trees - call them the first environmentalists - hated a religion that sought to cure the soul with words instead of potions made of leaves and juices that are antioxidants. They conspired to kill the Jesuits.
On the beach Father San Victores and Pedro had gathered the native faithful. To that beach came a furious apostate, a Catholic who had rejected Catholic teaching, and his pagan companion who had never known the faith. There on the hot sand they flung spears at young Pedro and Father San Victores. As befitted his youth, Pedro was light of step and fleet of foot. He hopped, skipped and jumped around as missiles flew around him. He may well have dodged the spear that killed him or fled from his assailants. But Pedro would not leave the priest. He finally caught a spear in the chest. The pagan closed on Pedro and cleaved his head with a bolo. Then both apostate and pagan turned their murderous attentions on the priest. The congregation watched in horror.
Stones were tied to the feet of the slain and their bodies flung into the sea not to be seen again until the day of judgment when, The Book of Common Prayer tells us, "the sea shall give up its dead."
Within weeks, the boy's beatification was started. No one thought of doing the same for the old priest, possibly because Jesuits are expected to die for the faith. The order was overflowing with the blessed. But this was a young native; new to the faith but in his unswerving commitment like unto a veteran soldier of the faith.
The Jesuit mission in Guam languished and in time closed until the anniversary of Guam miraculously recalled to mind an event near four centuries old about a young man who had jumped around on the burning sand, dodging spears, seemingly at play but never leaving the side of the priest. On certain nights, I like to think, a boy is dancing in the pale moonlight against the phosphorescent surf breaking softly on the sand.
Why is Pedro a saint? He founded no great order. He led no great mission. He died no spectacular death defiant at the enemies of our faith. His was a young man's life; an easy life as life went then; lightened by the bright company of good men; assured of meals though sparse; of clothes though plain, and unfailingly solaced by periodic prayer. It was just a boy's life.
Is this the stuff of sainthood? Yes it is because all it takes is a moment; a moment for which one must have prepared all of one's life, be that life long or short. All it requires is a decision with your life on the line to say, not with words but with deeds: I am with you, Christ. I am not with you.
Let me then reverse what they say of swift sweet things a moment on your lips and an eternity on your hips: a moment of pain in the sun; an eternity of glory in the company of saints and happiness in the presence of God. San Pedro is not the patron saint of a country quick to despise articles of our faith but the patron saint of boys; filled with energy; maybe a little mischief too, who know no fear, possess no guile, who live as though for the moment which is all we really have to offer Christ.
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/photos/vatican-names-new-seven-saints-slideshow/pope-benedict-xvi-attends-special-mass-canonize-seven-photo-092530540.html?fb_action_ids=531938996823198&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582&code=AQDysgFSdZROKQN-BWQeGV77owMvJbstFetqkdNDgmd6t9PvuzAoHx7UpBzFedinFcB2PgKiA4vqxrFOjtUOSJDSJ2ZUGNibrSN5mK9WW-rCsdJJBvQm-IvzU8PtMndnJzcK1yReU-L-yKH6zGOyjH8J6B23BCeIDglYirc7dNtrHH8_EARpJDlOXzMCVny8gPO2KbV5qlQB1FhnCHze2Efr#_=_
_
