Blessed Pedro Calungsod, a teen-age Catholic missionary who died a martyr in Guam more than three centuries ago, officially became the second Filipino saint on October 21, 2012 in canonization rites officiated by Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.

Calungsod was proclaimed saint with six others during a public consistory, or an assembly of Roman Catholic cardinals, celebrated by the Pope at the St. Peter’s Square.

Pedro Calungsodwas a teenage native of the Visayas region of the Philippines. He was one of the boy catechists who went with some Spanish Jesuit missionaries to the Mariana Islands in 1668 to evangelize the Chamorros.

Many accepted the Faith. But very soon, a Chinese healer, named Choco, envious at the missionaries, started to spread the rumor that the baptismal water of the missionaries was poisonous. The evil campaign of Choco was readily supported by some superstitious and immoral natives – the Macanjas and the Urritaos – who began to persecute the missionaries.

On 2 April 1672, Pedro – by then already about seventeen years old – and the superior of the Mission, named Padre Diego Luís de San Vitores, came to the village of Tomhom, in the Island of Guam to baptize a baby. But the child’s father, named Matapang, angrily refused to have his baby baptized.

Determined to kill the missionaries, Matapang went to enlist in his cause another villager, named Hirao. Matapang violently hurled spears first at Pedro. The lad skirted the darting spears with re-markable dexterity. Pedro had all the chances to escape because he was very agile, but he did not want to leave Padre Diego alone. He would have defeated his fierce aggressors if only he had some weapon because he was a valiant boy; but Padre Diego never allowed his companions to carry arms. Finally, Pedro was hit by a spear at the chest and Hirao finished him off with a blow of a cutlass on the head. After that, they also killed Padre Diego.

The assassins threw the bodies of Pedro and Padre Diego into the ocean. Those remains of the martyrs were never to be found again. Padre Diego Luís de San Vitores was beatified on 6 October 1985 while Pedro Calungsod was beatified on 5 March 2000 by Pope John Paul II.