San Pedro Calungsod: The Vague Saint

Today, October 21, 2012, at around 3:54 pm, Manila Time, Pedro Calungsod was canonized as the second Filipino saint.

With all the news about San Pedro Calungsod, I would like to discuss one characteristic of the new saint.

Perhaps, in the modern era, after the renaissance, no saint has as vague a personal circumstance as San Pedro Calungsod, who was canonized today.

That's why I call him San Pedro Calungsod, the vague saint.

Pedro Calungsod's personal circumstances are so vague that even the postulator of his sainthood could only rely on probability and common sense instead of evidentiary documents.


(to be continued)

San Pedro Calungsod: Patron Saint of the OFW?

In the afternoon of October 18, 2012, I was substituting for a radio anchor who was on a trip to the Vatican to cover the canonization of Pedro Calungsod.

During the radio program which was from 3pm to 4 pm, I discussed the travails of the Roman Catholic religion.

I talked about how a Jew (Jesus) started the religion of Christianity; how an apostle who denied Jesus three times (Peter) and a persecutor of Christians (Paul) built the Church from practically scratch.

I told recounted how the Jews later on shunned Christians.

Then I discussed the ultimate irony of it all: The Romans, who viewed Christians as source of entertainment and food for the lions, were converted to Christianity, and then hijacked the Christian religion and created the Roman Catholic Church, the largest religion in the world today.

What an irony.

Anyway, on that same afternoon, I made a sweeping statement and I warned the listeners: Listen to me and you will note that in two days, this will be the discussion of the moment: San Pedro Calungsod is the first OFW and he should be the patron saint of the OFW's.

I repeated the notice to the listeners: Before long, they will be hijacking this theory of Calungsod as OFW patron.

Later, that night I tweeted this:

St. Pedro Calungsod, is the first OFW. And now I nominate him as Patron St of the OFWs. (ThadsBentulan)
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8:14 PM - 18 Oct 12 · Details

That same night, after my radio stint declaring Calungsod as OFW patron saint, ABS-CBN discussed this possibility. News, today, travels faster.