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THE DISTRICT of Jaro in Iloilo City has the earliest recorded baptism of a Calungsod, according to the Mormon-run genealogy website, www.familysearch.org.
This little infor
mation perhaps could shed answer to queries on where exactly Blessed Pedro Calungsod came from as he is set to be canonized Sunday, October 21. The genealogy website operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, showed the earliest recorded baptism of a Calungsod was that of Maria Calungsod, daughter of Juan Calungsod and Josepha Beatris.
She was baptized on Sept. 7, 1748 in Jaro, Iloilo City, according to one of the most heavily used genealogy sites on the Internet. The FamilySearch.org website offers free access to digital images of genealogical records stored at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, which holds genealogical records for over 110 countries, territories, and possessions, including over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records.
Blessed Pedro Calungsod was believed to have been born in 1655 in the Visayas, with the towns of Ginatilan in Cebu, Hinundayan and Hinunangan in southern Leyte, and Molo, Iloilo City as his probable places of birth. There was no information as to how old Juan Calungsod when his daughter was baptized in Jaro but the website also showed that a Maria Feliziana Calungsod, probably a younger daughter, was baptized on June 2, 1753, also in Jaro, Iloilo City. A Thomasina Calungsod was also baptized in Jaro, Iloilo City on April 4, 1750 whose parents were listed as Juan Calungsod and Feliziana Olay, also the parents of another Maria Calungsod who was baptized on October 9, 1751, also in Jaro.
The website also yielded baptism records of Calungsods from Baybay, Leyte (1828), Hinunangan, Leyte (1856), Cavite City, Cavite (1872), Ginatilan, Cebu (1889), Taysan, Negros Oriental (1889), La Castellana, Negros Occidental (1900), Iloilo (1900) and Guihulngan, Negros Oriental (1903).
The earliest recorded baptism in Baybay, Leyte was that of Feliciana Alejandra Calungsod who was baptized in the Immaculate Conception Church on Nov 10, 1828 and whose parents were listed as Francisco Calungsod and Maria Vicenta.
In Hinunganan, Leyte, the earliest recorded baptism was that of Calixtra Calungsod, born in 1856 and died on Feb 25, 1926.
There was no information on who her parents were. (PNA)
Link
Source: Iloilo: Queen City of the South Official Page
Blessed Pedro Calungsod of Iloilo Will Be Canonized on October 21 by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.
Pedro Calungsod who will be formally canonized as a saint by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City on October 21 will be the second Filipino saint and is the first Ilonggo saint. Pedro Calungsod was born in the Chinese District of Molo in Iloilo around 1654. His family and relatives were natives of the town of Leon in Iloilo and his father is a skilled goldsmith. Religious scholars and anthropologistswill have the biggest proof and unearth, uncover the truth behind the real birthplace of Calungsod. I don't want to make any lies or false claims much more to a holy individual such as Pedro Calungsod. It felt so pathetic and so desperate for other places to claim Calungsod as their own that they repeatedly claim him as their own for a thousand of times in the local media and news over the same sensationalized and unconfirmed claims. I have admiration and respect for such veneration and honor they bestow on Calungsod but desperation of claim as their own is not counted so sorry but they look so hapless victim of desperation for fame and popularity without solid evidence.He studied in
a school for boys in Iloilo and went to Cebu to serve as a catechist and sacristan. In 1672, he joined Father Diego de San Vitores in a missionary work in Guam to preach among the natives and convert them to
the Christian religion where he was martyred on April 2, 1672 in Tumon,
Guam by the Chamorros, the native people of Guam who still exist up to
this day. Canonization through a religious ceremony is the final step towards sainthood. Pedro Calungsod was beatified on March 5, 2000 by then Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City and was witnessed through a LIVE broadcast by millions of people around the world. Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the Philippines' first saint was canonized in 1987 by Pope John Paul II. Another Ilongga servant of God from Iloilo, Sister Maria Beatriz Del Rosario Arroyo is also expected to be beatified in the future. Pedro Calungsod feast day is April 2.
Pedro’s story lives on in Iloilo By Nestor P. Burgos Jr. Inquirer Visayas 8:18 pm | Saturday, October 20th, 2012
ILOILO CITY, Philippines – Since she was a child, Ana Calunsod-Arquillo
has known well a story told by her father, Cornelio, and handed down
through at least eight generations: One of their ancestors—a young
boy—died with a priest on a Pacific island centuries ago.
The
story goes that a 7-year-old boy disappeared after he boarded and hid in
a Cebu-bound Spanish ship docked near what is now Molo District in
Iloilo City. When he was discovered by the crew, a priest took him under
his care.
The Calunsod clan of Molo believes that this boy was
Blessed Pedro Calungsod, who is to canonized at the Vatican on Sunday,
the second Filipino saint.
Arquillo, the seventh of 11
siblings, says Pedro was the son of Rufo Calungsod, a goldsmith. Rufo is
a namesake of her great-grandfather, who was also a goldsmith. She also
has a brother named Rufo.
“We know that there are several
other claims on Pedro’s roots, but we know deep in our hearts that he
was from here and he was our ancestor,” says Arquillo, 63, a retired
businesswoman.
The claim is supported by a Western Visayas historian, lawyer Rex Salvilla.
“The information that I have gathered and the circumstances during
Pedro’s time point more to the claim that he was from Molo, Salvilla
said.
Salvilla, past president of Iloilo Historical Association
and president of West Visayas Historical Research Foundation Inc.,
researched the background of the Visayan martyr in the late 1990s on the
request of then Molo parish priest Felipe Parian.
Parian had
been directed by the late Jaro Archbishop Alberto Piamonte to conduct
inquiries among the Calunsods in Molo about their possible relationship
to Pedro Calungsod.
The other possible origins of Calungsod in Iloilo are the towns of Leon, Tigbauan and Oton.
Salvilla confirms the account of Catalino Arevalo in the pamphlet
“Pedro Calungsod, Young Visayan Proto-Martyr” of an oral tradition
passed from generation to generation among the Calunsods in Iloilo.
A “Calungsod boy went from Iloilo to Mactan Island in Cebu, joined the
Jesuit missionaries who left for some island in the Pacific, and was
killed with the Fathers,” Arevalo’s account goes.
Family elders
told Salvilla that the family name of their ancestors during the
Spanish time was “Calungsod.” This was confirmed by birth certificates
at Molo Church, according to Salvilla.
The elders explained
that the spelling of their last name was changed to avoid conscription
into the Spanish colonial army and the Guardia Civil (national police).
Salvilla said the conscription was done through “quintos,” an annual
raffle where the names of native males aged 18 and above were listed and
drawn. Those whose names appeared in the fifth draw were recruited.
“To avoid being recruited, people slightly changed their surnames, like
‘Salazar’ to ‘Salarza’ or ‘Salard’ to ‘Saladar,’” Salvilla said.
The elder Calunsods said many of their ancestors fled to neighboring Negros Island to avoid conscription.
Salvilla said it was possible that children of the early Calungsods
migrated to Cebu and Bohol islands from Negros. The change in the
spelling of their surname from “Calungsod” to “Calunsod” could also have
been the result of the corruption of names that stemmed from the
difficulty the Spaniards had in pronouncing “ng.”
He cited the
renaming of places in Panay, including of Ilong-Ilong (Iloilo), Ogtong
(Oton), Batang (Batan), Jamindang (Jamindan) and Pangdan (Pandan).
Salvilla’s research showed that many members of the Calunsod clan lived
in Barangay (village) San Antonio in Molo. There is a road in the
village called La Compania Street, believed to be originally named La
Compania de Jesus (Society of Jesus) where a Jesuit mother house may
have once stood.
The Jesuit presence in Iloilo during the early
years of the Spanish rule was also well established. Salvilla cited the
first school for boys in the country, built in Tigbauan town in 1652 by
Fray Pedro Chirino, a Jesuit.
Salvilla said Pedro Calungsod
could have been taken by the Jesuit priests to Cebu, being the religious
center at that time covering the Visayas and Mindanao, before he went
with the mission to Guam.
Arquillo said she hoped that the
truth about Blessed Pedro’s roots would be settled one day. “But we are
happy all the same that we will have a saint so close to us Visayans,”
she said.
Arquillo bought plane tickets to attend the
canonization ceremony at the Vatican, but a pressing business engagement
forced her to drop her plan. Three of her cousins from Iloilo and four
from the United States, however, are in Rome for the event.
Arquillo also plans to install a life-size statue of St. Pedro in a
chapel on Barangay San Antonio Street that she herself had donated. The
image will be similar to the one she gave to the Molo church six years
ago and displayed at the compound.
“My father, who had always believed in the story of our boy ancestor, would be happy now,” she said. Link
As we continue our travel and incessant survey of world affairs we came across the patron saint of losers, a true-to-life personage from Britain’s early history but very apropos to our times. In the year 664, in Britain, an abbot stepped down from the powerful position of bishop after his predecessor, who was missing and feared dead, suddenly turned up alive and well. St. Chad became the patron saint of good losers. Even if modern citizens have little or no idea who he was, St. Chad’s name is everywhere in Chad’s name is everywhere in Britain – Chadbrook, Chadbury, Chadshurst, Chadsmoor, Chadstone, Chadwell, Chad Valley. In Birmingham and the surrounding countryside, over 30 ancient churches, and many more Victorian and modern ones, are dedicated to his memory. St. Chad was profoundly ascetic; radiating humility and self-abasement that characterize would be saints. He was ordained in 653, at probably no younger than the canonical age of 30. He learned Latin; he could recite some at least of the Gospels and the Psalms by heart, and studied arithmetic and astronomy. He was sent to an unknown monastery in Ireland to study for priesthood and was ordained there. On his return he got involved in a controversy which overshadowed the whole life of the English Church at the time. The issue, hotly disputed then as in modern Orthodoxy, was the Church calendar: should they follow the Celtic way of calculating Easter, or that lay down by the Council of Nicaea and followed by the rest of the Church at this time, including, of course, Rome. A leading protagonist in the controversy was Wilfrid. Early in 664, Wilfrid decided that the matter of the date of Easter would have to be resolved. He summoned a synod in Whitby, and persuaded them to accept the universal date. The area was struck by the plague; several of the monks caught it. In the same year Wilfrid was appointed Bishop of York, and went for this consecration in Paris. He did not come back to his new diocese for two years. Meanwhile, it was not strange that the King of Northumbria, Oswy, should have despaired of the new bishop’s return and decided to look for another. Knowing the holy Abbot of Lastingham, he believed him to be an ideal choice. St. Chad was reluctant to take on such a responsibility and felt himself unworthy, but was persuaded under obedience. St. Chad immediately devoted himself to maintain the truths of the Church, and set himself to practice humility and chastity and to study. He was a holy man, modest in his ways, learned in the Scriptures, and one who was careful to practice all that he found in them. In 666, Wilfrid returned from Paris to discover that Chad had been ordained to his own diocese in his absence, and he was not pleased. However, nothing was done until 669, when Theodore of Tarsus, by then Archbishop of Canterbury, took the matter up. Theodore summoned Chad and pointed out three serious flaws in his ordination as bishop. Two of the bishops were out of communion with the Church; the one canonical bishop who had taken part had been charged with simony; and finally Chad had been consecrated to a See that was in fact not vacant since Wilfrid had already been appointed and ordained. Chad’s response in the face of Episcopal ordination is reminiscent of that of St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom, and many others. He replied that he had never felt himself worthy of ordination and he was more than happy to return to Lastingham as a simple monk. So impressed was Archbishop Theodore by Chad’s saintly humility that he offered to ordain him canonically to the episcopacy (perhaps he had this idea in mind from the start). This was done, but Chad insisted that he would surrender the diocese of York to Wilfrid. In 672, the plaque which had brought death to Chad’s brothers now caught up with Chad himself. A lovely description of his death: Seven days before the Abbot’s death, his friend and disciple heard the sound of sweet and joyful singing coming down from heaven to earth. As the friend stood astonished, wondering what this might portend, he was summoned into the oratory by Chad, who told him to bring the other seven Brothers. Having urged them all to live in the peaceful and loving spirit of the monastic life, he told them that he would soon be summoned out of this world. Chad then told the friend in secret, in answer to his question, that the voices were those of angels who would come in seven days to take him away to the heavenly reward “that I have always hoped and longed for”. In seven days one may rightly believe he was taken by the angels to the joys of heaven. Since in many controversies the protagonists both claim righteousness and the grace of God, here is one prayer that can prepare the loser to accept his fate. Prayer on the Feast of Saint Chad – “Almighty God, whose servant Chad, for the peace of the Church, relinquished cheerfully the honors that had been thrust upon him, only to be rewarded with equal responsibility: keep us, we pray Thee, from thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, and ready at all times to step aside for others, that the cause of Christ may be advanced and thy blessed kingdom enlarged; in the name of Him who washed his disciples’ feet, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God now and ever, and unto ages of ages." Amen.
