Saint Pedro Calungsod image arrives in Manila

MANILA, Philippines – The image of Saint Pedro Calungsod arrived Thursday afternoon from Rome at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where it was greeted by a small crowd of Catholic air travelers and airport employees.

The icon, carried by its custodian Fr. Charles Jaime, arrived around 5 p.m. at Naia Terminal 1 on a Cathay Pacific flight CX-919 from Hong Kong. Devotees cheered and waved flaglets as the image passed through Terminal 1’s Gate 1 and into the passenger lounge where it was placed on a makeshift altar.

Welcoming the icon were Manila auxiliary bishop Bernardino Cortez, Pasay City mayor Antonio Calixto, Rep. Emmi Calixto, Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting president and former ambassador to the Holy See president Henrietta de Villa, and Terminal 1 manager Daniel Basanta.

The guests and Naia employees lit candles, offered jasmine leis and a bouquet of daisies, and held a brief prayer service president by the priests. The devotees also touched the icon’s feet, hands and face with their hands and handkerchiefs.

From Naia the statue was brought by motorcade to the University of Santo Tomas. It will be toured to more than 20 dioceses, starting with Pasig today and Antipolo this weekend.  It will also be flown to dioceses in Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol and Eastern and Western Visayas before being brought to Cebu City on November 27 in time for the Triduum Masses leading to the national thanksgiving celebration set on November 30.

Cortes called the canonization of Calungsod last Sunday and the coming elevation of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle as cardinal a “double blessing.”

De Villa, executive secretary of the national canonization commission, added that Catholics may now begin praying for intercession from the new saint.

“Saint Pedro Calungsod is a layman like us.  He showed we can be saints even if we’re not priests.  It is said that God usually grants prayers for intercession from newly canonized saints, as a sign of His favor so we should start praying to Saint Pedro,” she said.

The icon left Cebu City for Italy on October 16; it was first housed upon its arrival the next day at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino, the home of Filipino priests studying in Rome.

Before the canonization mass at St. Peter’s  Square on Oct. 21, the statue was displayed in the Triduum Masses held in three churches that had symbolisms related to Calungsod’s path to sainthood.

On October 18, the icon was exhibited during the first mass at the Basilica of Saint Augustin, a church administered by the Augustinian order.  Fr. Fernando Rojo, an Augustinian friar, was the chief postulator or promoter of Calungsod’s sainthood.

The image was displayed in the next day’s mass at the Church of the Gesu, the main church in Rome of the Jesuit Order, whose missionary, Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, was accompanied by Calungsod to Guam where they were both martyred on April 2, 1672.

The icon was next displayed during the October 20 mass held at the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the oldest and largest church in Rome dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  The basilica symbolizes Spain’s role in the Christianization of the Philippines:  the basilica’s archpriest is the Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello while its ex oficio protocanon (a lay official) is King Juan Carlos of Spain.

The statue was then brought to a vigil service at the Basilica of Santa Pudenziana, the designated “national church” of the Philippines in Rome, serving Filipino migrants and pilgrims.  Saint Pudenziana, or Potenciana. was also the first patron saint of Spanish Manila.

The icon stayed at the Santa Pudenziana during the canonization mass.  The church was later opened for the vespers and statue carried afterwards in procession around the church and to nearby streets.  The statue was also brought last Monday to St. Peter’s Basilica where the thanksgiving mass was celebrated by the retired Cebu archbishop, Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, and the Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Agaña, Guam.

A replica of the statue was given to the Pope and to the Collegio Filipino.  De Villa said replicas will also be given to the diocese that the image will be touring.