Pedro Caungsod was a young boy from the Visayan region. The Jesuits who were evangelizing the Visayas in the 1600 have trained young boys as assistants or catechists to help them in their missions. The training was in Jesuit-run boarding schools for boys. Pedro could be one of the boys who attended the school. He was among those brought by the Jesuit priest Fr. Diego Luís de San Vitores to
start the Mission at the Ladrones Islands together with other Jesuits.
Fr. Diego Luís de San Vitores was assigned in Antipolo. Fr. Juan Lopez, OP, the bishop of Cebu at that time, manifested his willing support to the Mission organized by Fr. Diego since the Ladrones were then part of the ecclesiastical territory of the Diocese of Cebu. The bishop himself may have sent boys from the Visayas to support the Mission. Another possibility is that the Jesuits in the Visayas themselves may have sent the boys to their fellow priest Fr. Diego.Overcoming all difficulties, the missionaries left with the ship named “San Diego” from the port of Cavite on August 7, 1667. They sailed first to Acapulco in Mexico to get some provisions for the Mission. They arrived in Acapulco on January 6, 1668 and stayed there until March 23, 1668 when they left for the Ladrones. They reached the island of Guam in the Ladrones on June 15, 1668.
A Chinese quack, named Choco, envious of the respect that the missionaries were gaining among the Chamorro, started to spread the talk that the baptismal water of the missionaries was poisonous. In addition, since some sickly Chamorro infants died after baptism, many believed the calumniator. The Macanjas, and Urritaos supported the evil campaign of Choco. Together with the apostates, they began to persecute the missionaries, to the point of killing them.
The missionaries were able to persevere in the Mariana Mission because of their firm spiritual life. They were fervent in their prayers and sacrifices for the salvation of souls. They were faithful to the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist. They regularly and frequently received the Sacrament of Confession, which helped them be at peace with God and always prepared for death. Moreover, they were so devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary as their inspiration and protector.
The most unforgettable attack happened on April 2, 1672, the Saturday just before the Passion Sunday of that year. At around seven o‟clock in the morning, Pedro who was about seventeen years old, and the superior of the Mission, Padre Diego, came to the village of Tomhom in Guam. They learned that a baby girl was recently born in the village. They went to ask the child‟s father, named Matapang, to bring out the infant for baptism. Matapang was a Christian and a friend of the missionaries, but having apostatized, he angrily refused to have his baby christened.
To give Matapang some time to cool down, Padre Diego and Pedro gathered the children and some adults of the village at the nearby shore and started reciting with them the truths of the Catholic Faith. They invited Matapang to join them.
Matapang shouted back that he was angry with God and was fed up with the Christian teachings. Determined to kill the missionaries, Matapang went away and tried to recruit in his cause another villager, named Hirao, who was not a
Christian. At first, Hirao refused, aware of the kindness of the missionaries towards the natives. However, when Matapang called him a coward, he got irritated and so he consented.
During that short absence of Matapang from his hut, Padre Diego and Pedro took the chance of baptizing the infant with the consent of the Christian mother. When Matapang learned of the baptism, he became even more furious. He violently hurled spears first at Pedro. The lad avoided the darting spears with remarkable skill. Witnesses said that Pedro had all the chances to escape because he was very swift, but he did not want to leave Padre Diego alone. Those who personally knew Pedro believed that he would have defeated his fierce attackers and would have freed both himself and Padre Diego if only he had some weapon because he was a brave boy; but Padre Diego never allowed his companions to carry arms because they were missionaries of peace. Finally, a spear hit Pedro at the chest and he fell to the ground. Hirao immediately charged towards him and finished him off with a blow of a short sword on the head. Padre Diego could not do anything except to raise a crucifix and give Pedro the final sacramental absolution. After that, the assassins also killed Padre Diego. Matapang took the crucifix of Padre Diego and crushed it with a stone while blaspheming God.
Both assassins stripped the bodies of Pedro and Padre Diego, dragged them to the edge of the shore, tied large stones to their feet, brought them on a proa to sea and threw them into the deep. Their remains were never found.
When the fellow missionaries of Pedro learned of his death, they exclaimed, “Privileged youth! How well rewarded his four years of persevering service to God in the difficult Mission are; he has become the herald of our superior, Padre Diego, in Heaven!”
They remembered Pedro to be a boy with a very good character. He was a righteous catechist, a faithful assistant, and a good Catholic whose perseverance in the Faith even to the point of martyrdom proved him a good soldier of Christ.
No one knows from where Pedro was from. However, “bissaya” may be just the perfect description of who Pedro was and who he should be to us today. For according to Fr. Ignacio Francisco Alcina, SJ, who worked in the Visayas during the time of Pedro, “bissaya” means “a happy man”, “a man of fine and pleasant disposition.” Pedro as described by his companions in their accounts of his martyrdom: that he was a lad of “very good disposition”, and that he was a “fortunate [happy] youth” because he lived and died for the Christian Faith.
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