Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Tantingco: The first Kapampangan saint?
By Robby Tantingco
Peanut Gallery
THE Tagalogs have Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the Visayans a Blessed Pedro Calungsod; why, then, shouldn't Kapampangans, who are known for their fidelity to the Catholic Church, have their own saint?
Having a saint is the crowning glory of any Christian community; to achieve sanctity is never an individual accomplishment, but a collective effort that creates the environment for that individual to become saintly. We Kapampangans have produced presidents, poets laureate, justices of the Supreme Court, world-class artists, paragons of beauty and talent - why shouldn't sanctity be another field that we should excel in? Besides, we need a good and convincing antidote to that persistent accusation that we are dugong aso, a tag unfairly attached to all Kapampangans as a result of the Macabebe soldiers' service to the colonizers.
But where, oh where, can we find a kabalen who is worthy to be called a Saint, who is now in heaven, willing and able to listen to our prayers and bring them before God in whose presence he and all the other saints and angels live forever and ever?
Well, look no more, for we have found a Kapampangan who can be the perfect candidate for sainthood. He is Felipe Sonsong (1611-1685), the Macabebe soldier turned Jesuit missionary. And we have enough information that can push his cause for beatification, more information than either Lorenzo Ruiz or Pedro Calungsod - in fact, the 1686 document on the life and death of Felipe Sonsong is, according to Jesuit historian Fr. John N. Schumacher, SJ, the most extensive biographical account of any Filipino before the 19th century.
The HAU Center for Kapampangan Studies has submitted its recommendation to the Archdiocese of San Fernando, for the cause of beatification of Felipe Sonsong. However, the process between the initial investigation and canonization at the St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican is a long and expensive process, but we should start it now, so that we can see our dream come true within our lifetime.
Let me tell you about Felipe Sonsong. He was born on May 1, 1611 to a family of politicians and soldiers in Macabebe, Pampanga. His father, Don Ramon Sonsong, was gobernadorcillo of Macabebe twice, in 1630 and 1632, and Felipe's brother, Agustin Sonsong, was cabeza de barangay of Caputatan, Macabebe in 1633, and later appointed captain of a company of Macabebe soldiers in the Spanish royal infantry, which guarded the Intramuros. Agustin (presumably together with Felipe) is also known to have helped the Spaniards quash a revolt of the Chinese in 1639 and subdue a small Kapampangan uprising in Gapan, Nueva Ecija in 1645.
Thus, the Sonsongs were loyal to Spain but only until 1660, when the Great Kapampangan Revolt broke out, led by Francisco Maniago. This was the time the Sonsongs, like many affluent families in Pampanga, cut their ties with the Spanish civil government (they continued being loyal to the Spanish religious missions). In fact, Agustin's son (Felipe's nephew), Agustin Pamintuan de Sonsong, was Maniago's emissary to Pangasinan and Ilocos, supplying critical information to other rebel groups in the north wanting to join the Kapampangans' rebellion against Spain.
Felipe Sonsong was already a 50-year-old soldier at the time of the Kapampangan revolt. The failure of that revolt, as well as his wife's death in 1667, made Felipe turn his back at the world. He left everything to his son Jeronimo (who served as Macabebe gobernadorcillo for an unprecedented 10 terms) and volunteered his services first to the Augustinians in Pampanga and then to the Dominicans in Manila, working as domestic help and carpenter, despite his advanced age and noble background. And when the Jesuits needed laymen to accompany Diego de San Vitores in his mission to the Marianas, Felipe Sonsong crossed over to the Jesuits.
The Jesuits immediately liked him. "He presented himself for the execution of every task with great charity," the 1686 document says, "in particular of mending and sewing the clothes of those who needed it... When with great promptness he finished one task, he went on to another... And if on some day he had no occupation, or on feast days, he was totally occupied in devotions and spiritual books, in having many periods of prayer, and in giving good advice to those of his nation."
The Jesuits further observed that at every opportunity, Felipe Sonsong always knelt down and kissed a priest's hand in submission, bowing to the ground and asking the priest's forgiveness; he heard Mass on his knees "with remarkable fervor and simple devotion in the most hidden corner of the church or ship."
In the Marianas, the saintly Fr. Diego de San Vitores (recently beatified) ordered Felipe to sew pieces of colored sinamay cloth to adorn the chapel's altar, and to make clothes to cover the nakedness of the islanders' chieftains. Felipe also sewed and mended the habits of the missionaries and lay volunteers (including probably Pedro Calungsod, who was in Fr. San Vitores' group), and made rosaries for the newly baptized islanders.
In 1669, the islanders built a chapel for the Jesuit missionaries. Felipe was assigned to decorate it; he made an altar made from coconut trunks, and then put holy pictures on frameless canvases, "thus creating an altarpiece quite beautiful for the land."
Fr. San Vitores examined Felipe's spiritual life and "found great depth in the spirit of Don Felipe" but considered the old Kapampangan's penances, disciplines, and hairshirts as "severe for his age and for the intensity with which he gave himself to the corporeal work needed each day." And so he ordered Felipe to stop those penances and declared that his "tireless work" was already sufficient, telling him to save his energies "for matters of greater service to God." Felipe obeyed, "though he regretted being deprived of the practice of the penances."
Felipe had other dramatic episodes with Fr. San Vitores recorded in the document. On one occasion, he threw himself at the priest's feet, weeping and requesting that "this vile little worm" be "clothed with the insignia of a slave of our Father St. Ignatius and of his holy Society." Since indios were banned from becoming full-fledged Jesuits during that time, the most that Felipe could become was a donado, a layman who had the same vows as the Jesuits. And so on the night of the vigil of Pentecost in 1669, Fr. San Vitores made Felipe Sonsong a donado, and "from that day on, he was more and more humble, placing himself below everyone as being the most vile creature of the world."
(To be continued next week)
(September 26, 2006 issue)
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