HEADING FOR ROME

Instead of being treated as cargo, a three-foot image of the Visayan martyr Pedro Calungsod will be brought to Rome  as a “passenger” for the Oct. 21 canonization rites.

The wooden sculpture of the soon-to-be declared saint will leave Cebu at 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 16, said Fr. Charles Jayme, official custodian of the Calungsod image.

“The image will be considered a passenger, not  cargo,” he said in an interview at the Sto. Rosario Parish Church in  Cebu City yesterday.

Jayme said Calungsod’s image of a brown-skinned youth with wooden slippers (bakya)  on his feet will occupy its own seat in the Cathay Pacific  flight.

Jayme  will sit beside the image on its way to Rome and on its return trip to the Philippines after the canonization.

Jayme  said  being the official custodian of the official Calungsod image was a blessing.

“To me, it’s a grace from God and a humbling experience for me. I was not expecting this. I consider this a challenge for me to live a life like Pedro, as a priest and a Catholic at that,” said Jayme, team leader of  the Duaw Nasud or national  visits in the Visayas-Mindanao area.

On Monday, Oct. 15, the image will be transferred from the Archbishop’s Residence in D. Jakosalem Street, Cebu City to the  Blessed Pedro Calungsod Shrine in the same compound.

The solemn transfer of the image will be preceeded by a Holy Mass at the shrine.

At 4:30 a.m. on the following day, Calungsod’s image will be brought to the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral for a Mass.

At 8 a.m., the image will be transported in a motorcade to the Mactan Cebu International Airport where it will  be housed inside the chapel as it awaits the 12:30 p.m. departure.

Jayme said the image will be placed in a hard styrofoam  box  layered with white satin.

The new image carved by an artisan in Paete, Laguna province,  will be used for the “Duaw Nasud” or nationwide tour to begin on Oct. 25 in Manila.

The official image of Calungsod was chosen by Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal  Vidal from several samples.

It shows  Calungsod stepping  forward with his right foot,  which symbolizes his mission of moving from one place to another to spread the word of God.

Pedro holds a green palm, the symbol of martyrdom, and a catechism book called the “Doctrina Cristiana” in his arms.

He is dressed in black pants and a white long sleeved shirt like a camiso de chino.

Vidal earlier explained that the features were based on the artist’s imagination since no actual record exists of how Calungsod, who died in 1672, looked like.

The teenage mission helper came from somewhere in the Visayas and was among the first to serve on a mission organized by Jesuit priest Fr. Diego de San Vitores to the Ladrones Islands in the Western Pacific, Marianas in 1668.

On April 2, 1672,  Pedro  and Fr. Diego were speared to death by angry villagers in Tumhon, Guam, for catechizing and baptizing natives.