How should they make Blessed Pedro look?

CEBU Archdiocese archbishop emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal will choose the official sculpture of Blessed Pedro Calungsod. A Sun.Star news report said Cardinal Vidal expects the statue to be "Filipino-looking and young," with all-white outfit but no shoes.

Sheer-white attire (ala broadcaster Bobby Nalzaro) and unshod feet (ala the late zookeeper Father Tropa) would be easy enough. But Vidal's description isn't of much help.

How many "Filipino-looking" young men are there to copy from? Specifics would help.

A police cartographer can produce a hundred images that fit the cardinal's order. A sculptor, with free rein on creativity, will be more prolific.

But hey. There's already an "official" painting of the would-be saint, which artist Rafael Casal did in 1999.

Casal reportedly based the image on description from "Historias de las Islas e Indios" by one Fr. Alcin, a contemporary of the Bisaya catechist slain in Guam.

But the book said "corpulent, better built, taller, light brown, black eyes and hair, flat nose." How much of that would fit Blessed Pedro in the painting?

Not corpulent

Blessed Pedro in the painting is not fat and fleshy or with a squat nose, not ethnic-looking at all. That isn't the image of the "every man" then, the Visayan "indio," of which Blessed Pedro was said to be one.

But given the official painting, which entrepreneurs already mass-produced in religious articles, shouldn't he have the same features in the sculpture?

They can't have the would-be saint look like a "mestizo" in the portrait and a snub-nosed native in the statue.

(paseares@sunstar.com.ph or @gmail.com)