Calungsod image arrives in Rome

CEBU CITY -- The pilgrim image of Blessed Pedro Calungsod arrived in Rome, Italy around 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to Fr. Mhar Balili, a member of the liturgical committee for the Calungsod canonization in Rome.

Calungsod’s canonization, the Philippines’ second saint and the first Visayan martyr of the Catholic Church, is set on Sunday, October 21.

Calungsod’s image was accompanied by Fr. Charles Jayme, the custodian of the image, aboard a Cathay Pacific flight.

The Cathay Pacific aircraft carrying the image took off from the Mactan Cebu International Airport at 12:56 p.m. Tuesday.

It arrived in Hong Kong at 3:15 p.m. and left at midnight for Rome.

The image occupied a passenger seat next to Father Jayme.

Jayme said being the custodian of the image is “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

An estimated 20,000 people in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu went out to the streets waving palm leaves, small flags and Calungsod’s pictures Tuesday morning to send off the image of the teenaged martyr.

A convoy of nearly 100 vehicles accompanied the red pickup that carried the three-foot-tall image from Cebu City to Mandaue City and then to the Mactan airport.

More than 200 pilgrims were on the same flight with the pilgrim image of Blessed Pedro Calungsod.

A teenaged catechist, Calungsod was part of a Jesuit mission sent to teach catechism at the Ladrones Islands or the Marianas Islands in the late 1600s.

He served as the "sacristan" of Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores. They were killed when they tried to baptize one of the natives.

Calungsod was beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II in March 2000. (PNA)