Tantingco: A Macabebe in heaven? (Conclusion)

THE road to sainthood is long, winding and expensive, but fortunately, it's been simplified since 1983, on orders of Pope John Paul II.

It starts as a people's initiative: they petition their local bishop to open an investigation of their candidate for canonization. Then the bishop submits the petition and initial findings to the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which then assigns a Postulator to do further investigation. (The Vatican used to also assign a parallel Promoter of the Faith, or "the devil's advocate," but the practice stopped in 1983.)

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Next, the Congregation recommends to the Pope to proclaim the candidate "Venerable," or worthy of veneration. At this point prayer cards may be printed to encourage people to pray to him for miracles, which are required in the investigation.

If the candidate is a martyr, that miracle requirement is waived, and the Pope can immediately proclaim him "Blessed." He will be assigned his own feast day, although it can be celebrated only in his diocese. It is only when he is proclaimed a "Saint" that the feast may be celebrated by the rest of the world. But to become a saint, another miracle is required (even for martyrs this time).

In the case of Felipe Sonsong, I know that Macabebe parishioners have submitted their petition to the Archdiocese of San Fernando. I also know that Archbishop Aniceto will forward it to the Vatican when he visits Rome later this year.

Long ago, the whole process used to take decades and even centuries (Joan of Arc, who died in 1431, was beatified only in 1909 and canonized in 1920). After 1983, however, it speeded up a bit (Josemaria Escriva died in 1975, was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2002).

For Sonsong, the speed of the process will depend on whether or not the Vatican will consider his death a martyrdom, because he survived his execution and died only six months later. This is how it happened:

On July 23, 1684, the day the Revolt of the Chamorros started, Sonsong was attacked while doing carpentry work in Agana, Guam.

The Chamorros slit his throat, with the clear intention of beheading him. According to Fr. Bustillo, one of Sonsong's Jesuit companions, "the weapon cut badly," so the Chamorros instead "gave him two wounds on the head and one in the socket of his left eye," which caused a piece of bone to come out.

He was so covered with his own blood that when the Jesuits found him, they thought he had been killed. They gave him the last rites and heard his confession, and "the first words he uttered were the names of Jesus and Mary."

The 73-year-old Kapampangan went on to live until January, but during that period Sonsong "united himself more and more with God and exercised all the virtues which were possible to him in the current circumstances."

"Certain things stood out in the last days of his life," said Fr. Bustillo. First, Sonsong always stayed in a hidden spot in the chapel, hearing all the Masses said there. Second, he let himself be ordered around by everyone "for he already considered himself dead and living only for Christ Crucified." And third, when he wasn't being ordered, he stayed on his knees in humility and mortification.

"He did well the ordinary things of every day," observed Fr. Bustillo.

Sonsong was offered to stay in a comfortable room but instead built a hut "in the place which was most uncomfortable, because it was above the kitchen."

This Kapampangan "was never found talking of food, nor complain of the lack of it." In the rare times that he ate, he would say, "Let us eat not for pleasure, but because God commands it, so as to be able to live, work and serve Him."

Although old, crippled and weakened from his wounds, Sonsong continued his carpentry work. Sometimes he couldn't help speaking loudly because he had turned deaf and because he made sure the workers did not commit mistakes. "But," Fr. Bustillo noted, "Immediately afterward he asked them to pardon him for the love of God."

"All the occasions and things which came to him-he took them as sent by the hand of God. He exercised himself in three degrees: first, in bearing with patience all that came to him; second, in doing it promptly; and third, in receiving it with joy and gladness. He seemed in every respect an angel in a mortal body."

Sonsong "seemed to be loving rather than working," observed Fr. Bustillo.

Eventually, phlegm filled up his chest and took away all desire to eat. When they tried to give him medicine, he asked, "What for, if I must die?" and when food was brought to him, he said, "I have to die, why eat?" When told that holy obedience commanded him, he complied although it gave him great pain.

On Friday, January 11, 1685, at 11 a.m., Sonsong suffered a seizure. The Jesuit priests gathered around his deathbed to administer the last rites, but Sonsong regained consciousness and prayed the rosary with them.

At 1 p.m. the Jesuits left to take their usual siesta, because "it seemed to us that he was not going to die so soon. He was conscious and without anxiety," wrote Fr. Bustillo.

At 2 p.m., Fr. Bustillo returned to check on him. "I found him out of his bed and kneeling on the floor with his arms on the bed and his head on top of them. Thinking that he was still alive, I spoke to him to get him back to bed, but he was already dead."

They put him in a wooden coffin wearing his Jesuit donado habit as well as the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the scapular of St. Dominic, and the cord of St. Augustine.

The highest Spanish civilian and military officers, including the Governor of the Marianas himself, carried his coffin "from the fort where he died to the church recently erected near the sea," and buried him there.

With a little help from the Jesuits and Guam officials we should be able to locate Sonsong's gravesite, erect a landmark and probably even find his remains. While waiting for word from the Vatican, we Kapampangans should make an effort to know who Felipe Sonsong was, and what values and virtues we can learn from him.

We have always revered heroes and poets and freedom-fighters on the pantheon of great Kapampangans. For a change, how about-a saint?

(Sources: The works of Fr. John N. Schumacher, SJ, Dr. Luciano PR Santiago, and Augusto V. de Viana)