As a boy, Pedro attended a Catholic school in the province of Cebu. By age 14, he knew and loved the faith so well, that the Jesuits invited him to become a missionary on their voyage to the Mariana Islands. He is called "the teenage catechist". Pedro sailed to Guam with the blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, SJ. They worked among the Chamorro people and converted many of them to Catholicism, including the wife of Mata'pang, the pagan chief of the Tumon. The chief was hostile to the Christians and to Christianity. When the missionaries dared to baptize the chief's newborn daughter - at his wife's request - Mata'pang was so angry that he goaded the villagers into killing both Fr. Diego Luis and the teenage catechist. St. Pedro Calungsod was only 17 or 18 when he was martyred in 1672.
- submitted by Marisol Soler
Above: St. Pedro Calungsod's canonization live from the Vatican More links about San Pedro - click here Prayer requests to St. Pedro Calungsod - click here |