Cebuano martyr closer to sainthood

The Catholic Church has recognized a miracle that should soon lead to the canonization of a second Filipino saint, Cebuano martyr Pedro Calungsod, the Vatican said Tuesday.

According to a report from the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI met last December 19 with Angelo Cardinal Amato SDB, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and approved the decree recognizing the miracle required to make Calungsod a saint.

Calungsod is set to be canonized with six others but the Vatican has yet to announce it.

The report also did not mention what miracle was recognized in Calungsod’s case.

However, Church authorities are known to have studied a claimed miracle in Cebu 2003 involving a woman whose heart stopped while undergoing open heart surgery and was declared brain dead.

The woman, however, came back to life after her doctor invoked Calungsod’s help.

Calungsod, a lay catechist martyred while doing missionary work in Guam in 1672, was officially declared a martyr in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

The first Filipino saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz, was also a layman who was martyred in Japan in the 17th century. Philip C. Tubeza