San Pedro Calungsod - 2nd Filipino Saint

Sacristan.. Missionary.. Catechist.. and Martyr...

While in Guam, Calungsod preached Christianity to the Chamorro people through catechism, while baptizing infants, children and adults at the risk and expense of being persecuted and eventually murdered.

Born: July 21, 1654 (Ginatilan, Cebu)
Died: April 2, 1672 at the age of 17 (Tumon, Guam)

Honored in Roman Catholic Church.

Beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II, March 5, 2000 in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Canonized by Pope Benedict XVI, October 21, 2012 in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Major Shrine: Archdiocesan Shrine of Saint Pedro Calungsod, Archbishop's Residence Compound, Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

Feast: April 2

Attributes: Martyr's palm, spear, bolo, Catechism Book, Rosary, Christogram, Crucifix

Patronage: Filipino youth, Catechumens, altar boys, the Philippines, Overseas Filipino Workers, Guam, Cebuanos, Visayans, Archdiocese of Cebu, Philippines

After Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, Calungsod will be the second Filipino declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Pls click this link if you want to know more about Saint Pedro Calungsod.

Cebu City - Revisited

After our Bohol Tour, we spend overnight at Cebu City. We only visited a few places near our hotel. Only a night and a half day to spend. Here are some of the must-see places in Cebu.
Experience a Skywalk Adventure at Crown Regency Hotel & Resort. My colleagues took the sky rides, the Edge Coaster and the Sky Walk Extreme. A very nice view of the cityscape during night.

Cebu IT Park at night. This is a lifestyle destination to those who loves dining out, recreations, boutiques and some establishments that offers employments like call centers and outsourcing services.

The Taoist temple is open to public. There is a ritual here where one can pray to gods to grant his wish. Here you can view the Port of Cebu and some tall buildings. This is popular because a lot of schools held their field trips here and even one of the places that travel tours offers to visit.

We visited Basilica Sto. Nino. It was Sunday. We didn't expect how plenty of people! This is what I got using my cellphone camera. At least I had one! The Magellan's Cross. This cross is only a replica. Others believe that the original cross has been destroyed. Others believe that it disappeared after Magellan's death. This cross signifies that the Spaniards successfully colonized the Philippines.

This is the end of our tour. Hope that I can visit out of town places sometime this year.

Viva Pit Senyor!

The Sinulog is an annual festival held on the third Sunday of January in Cebu City, Philipines. The festival honors the child Jesus, recognized as the Santo Niño (Holy Child), patron of the city of Cebu. It is a dance ritual that commemorates the Cebuano people’s pagan origin, and their acceptance of Christianity.

The festival features a street parade with participants in bright-colored costumes dancing to the rhythm of drums, trumpets, and native gongs. Smaller versions of the festival are held in various parts of the province, also to celebrate, and honor the Santo Niño.

Recently, the festival has been promoted as a tourist attraction, with a contest featuring contingents from various parts of the country.
The word Sinulog comes from the Cebuano adverb sulog which is "like water current movement," which describes the forward-backward movement of the Sinulog dance. The dance consists of two steps forward and one step backward, done to the sound of drums. The dance is categorized into Sinulog-base, Free-Interpretation. Candle vendors at the Basilica continue to perform the traditional version of the dance when lighting a candle for the customer, usually accompanied by songs in the native language.

The Sinulog dance steps were believed to originate from Rajah Humabon's adviser, Baladhay. It was during Humabon's grief when Baladhay was driven sick. He then ordered his native tribe to bring Baladhay into a chapel where the Santo Niño was enthroned. Moments later, surprisingly, Baldhay was heard shouting, and was found dancing with outmost alertness. Baladhay was questioned as to whether why was he awake, and was shouting. Baladhay explained that he found a small child, pointing to the image of the Santo Niño, on top of him, and trying to wake him up. He, at great astonishment, scared the child away by shouting but couldn't explain why he was dancing the movements of the river. Up to this day, the two-steps forward, and the one-step backward movement dance is still used by the Santo Niño devotees believing that it was the Santo Niño's choice to have Baladhay dance what the holy child wants them to dance.