RPYCC's Presentation of Saints 2022

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Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century, probably during that of Valerian. Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass, a deacon would be sent to the prisons to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die. At one point, there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte, was sent carrying the “Holy Mysteries” to those in prison.

Sheun Loreto as Saint Tarcisius

Even as a baby, Isabel de Flores so pretty that she was called “Rose,” the most beautiful of all the flowers. Growing up in Lima, Peru, where she was born in 1586, Isabel developed a talent for gardening, so it is not surprising that she took the name “Rose” as her confirmation name. As she tended the flowers in her family garden, she prayed. Her relationship with God was the most important thing in her life.
Rose did not take good care of her own health. She did not sleep enough and she did not eat properly. These sacrifices shortened her life of service to Jesus and her neighbor. When she died in 1617, she was just 31 years old, and people from all over Lima came to her funeral Mass to thank God for filling Rose with love for all people.

She was canonized in 1667. We honor Rose of Lima on August 23. She was the first person from the New World—the Americas—to be named a saint, and she is today the patroness of Latin America and the Philippines, as well as of gardeners and florists. Rose’s life teaches us to reach out to our neighbor and to use our talents to help them live better lives.

Floresita Arellano as Saint Rose of Lima

Francisco is one of the 3 children of Fatima. He was born 11 June 1908, the sixth of seven children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto. He was a handsome boy, with light hair and dark eyes. Alone among the three, Francisco never heard the Lady’s words, although he saw her and felt her presence. August 1918, when World War I was nearing an end, Francisco and Jacinta both contracted influenza. They had short reprieves, but their decline was inevitable. In April of the following year, Francisco, knowing his time was short, asked to receive the Hidden Jesus for the first time in Holy Communion. The next morning, April 4th, at ten o’clock, he died with a glow on his shrunken face. He was buried the next day in a little cemetery in Fatima, across from the parish church, and later translated to the Sanctuary at Cova da Iria.

John Nino Carpiso as Saint Fransisco Marto

Queen of all Saints

Mary is called the Queen of All Saints because she made the most diligent use of the rich treasure of grace given to her by God and excelled in every virtue much more than every other saint. All the traits of Jesus were expressed in her as faithfully as they could be expressed in any creature. As she surpasses all saints in choosing a virtuous and meritorious life, so Mary stands higher than all the faithful in receiving glory and reward. After God there is no greater bliss for the blessed in heaven than to behold her, their glorious Queen.

Carylle Jane Binoya as Queen of all Saints

St. Dymphna (or Dympna or Dimpna) is the patron saint of the mentally ill and those with nervous disorders, according to the Catholic Church. Her life story was first recorded in the 1200s based on an oral tradition reported as happening in the 600s. It may be just an elaboration of a common legend.

Her father was a pagan and a (possibly) Irish king or warlord, named Damon in some stories. Her mother was very beautiful and a Christian. Dymphna was secretly baptized.

According to the legend, when her mother died, her father sought in vain for a wife that could compare to her. They settled near Antwerp in the village of Gheel, near the chapel of St. Martin of Tours. Her father found her there by tracing her spending of foreign money. He (or his men) decapitated the priest, possibly after the priest rebuked him, and repeated his demands. When she refused, he cut off her head. She was buried in or near Gheel.

Precious Go as Saint Dymphna

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes was a saint born on January 7, 1844, in Lourdes, France. She received several visions from the Virgin Mary starting in 1858. When she reported these visions, civil authorities attempted to force her to recant her accounts. She refused, and word spread about the cave she had found with supposed miracle healing springs. Napolean III’s wife helped her achieve her vision to build a church at the cave. Lourdes emerged as a pilgrimage site for worshippers from around the world. She died on April 16, 1879, and was canonized as a saint in 1933 by Pope Pius XI.

Lensie Faith Aliviado as Saint Bernadette

Our Lady of Miraculous Medal

races, or Medal of the Immaculate Conception) relates to such experiences. This veneration object has a powerful symbolism, capable of unexpected healings and prodigious acts, and comes from an apparition, from a moment of divine love turned into flesh and light. It comes from the meeting of a young and humble novice aged twenty-four and the Virgin Mary, a night dialogue that lasted for hours, made not only of words but also of looks, gestures, displays of affections and devotions, and vibrant hope.

Saint Therese of the Holy Face

Following the biblical tradition, when people entered religious life, they took a new name to signify their new call from God. When she entered the Carmelite Monastery to give her life to God, Marie Francoise Therese Martin took the religious name "Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face." Therese had a great devotion to the Infant Jesus, and her spirituality was a childlike simplicity and trust in God's love. In Lisieux, the Carmelite Monastery had a great devotion to the suffering Holy Face of Jesus that was reflected on the veil of Veronica. This included an outdoor shrine in the cloister garden. Because Therese was constantly looking to see the hidden Holy Face of Jesus in everyone and everything, Therese took that second part of her religious name. She explained: "I desire that, like the Face of Jesus, my face be truly hidden that no one on earth would know me. I thirsted after suffering and I longed to be forgotten." Her religious name, Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus and Holy Face, therefore came to signify what she was about and how God's grace was working in her.

Samantha Niña Montecir as Saint Therese of the Holy Face

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

In August 9 the Catholic Church remembers St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as St. Edith Stein. St. Teresa converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the course of her work as a philosopher, and later entered the Carmelite Order. She died in the N**i concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942.

Edith Stein was born on October 12, 1891 – a date that coincided with her family's celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement.” Edith's father died when she was just two years old, and she gave up the practice of her Jewish faith as an adolescent.

As a young woman with profound intellectual gifts, Edith gravitated toward the study of philosophy and became a pupil of the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913. Through her studies, the non-religious Edith met several Christians whose intellectual and spiritual lives she admired.

Padre Pio, original name Francesco Forgione, also called St. Pio of Pietrelcina, (born May 25, 1887, Pietrelcina, Italy—died September 23, 1968, San Giovanni Rotondo; canonized June 16, 2002; feast day September 23), Italian priest and saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Born into a devout Roman Catholic family, he consecrated himself to Jesus at age 5. At age 15 he joined the Capuchin order and took the name Pio in honour of St. Pius I. In 1910, the year in which he became a priest, he received the stigmata (bodily marks corresponding to the wounds suffered by the crucified Jesus) for the first time, though they eventually healed. He was drafted into the Italian military in 1915 for medical service during World War I but was shortly discharged because of his poor health. He received the stigmata again in 1918, and this time they remained with him until his death. These and other signs of his holiness (such as his reported ability to be in two places at once and his gift of healing) drew growing numbers of pilgrims to him. He was noted for his charity and piety and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

Glyde P. Desoyo as Saint Padre Pio

We are inviting Everyone to Join Our upcoming PARADE OF SAINTS this Coming October 30, 2022,

Saint Agnes, almost nothing is known of this saint except that she was very young—12 or 13—when she was martyred in the last half of the third century. Various modes of death have been suggested—beheading, burning, strangling.

Legend has it that Agnes was a beautiful girl whom many young men wanted to marry. Among those she refused, one reported her to the authorities for being a Christian. She was arrested and confined to a house of prostitution. The legend continues that a man who looked upon her lustfully lost his sight and had it restored by her prayer. Agnes was condemned, executed, and buried near Rome in a catacomb that eventually was named after her. The daughter of Constantine built a basilica in her honor.

Iris Belle Salazar as Saint Agnes

Carlo Acutis was born May 3, 1991, in London, where his parents were working. Just a few months later, his parents, Andrea Acutis and Antonia Salzano, moved to Milan.

As a teenager, Carlo was diagnosed with leukemia. He offered his sufferings for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Church, saying “"I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church.”

He died on Oct. 12, 2006, and was buried in Assisi, at his request, because of his love for St. Francis of Assisi.

Ramsy Guimbarda as Blessed Carlo Acutis

St. Philomena was a Greek princess who was martyred at a young age. Born into a Christian family in the 3rd century, St. Philomena found herself the desire of Emperor Diocletian, who was going to war with St. Philomena’s father. When the virgin St. Philomena, believed to be roughly 13 at the time, refused, she was subject to cruel torments like scourging, drowning and shooting. However, in each attempt on her life, St. Philomena was protected by angels who rescued her. Eventually, Emperor Diocletian had the virgin martyr decapitated. Her tomb was discovered in a catacomb the 19th century. Images on the funerary tiles on her tomb were an anchor, a palm, a javelin, arrows and a lily.

Jarduliza Arellano as Saint Philomena

Peter was the first Apostle to recognize that Jesus was the Messiah, the one promised by God to save his people. He gave up his life as a fisherman to lead others to Jesus, by being a fisher of men (Matthew 4:19) for Christ. He was a witness to the Transfiguration, when Jesus was revealed to be God’s Son. He saw Jesus bring a dead child to life (Luke 8:40-56), and he was an eyewitness to Jesus’ agony in the garden of Gethsemane.

Ghandi D. CabagGhandi D. Cabag as Saint Peter, Apostle

Saint Agatha, As in the case of Agnes, another virgin-martyr of the early Church, almost nothing is historically certain about this saint except that she was martyred in Sicily during the persecution of Emperor Decius in 251.

Legend has it that Agatha, like Agnes, was arrested as a Christian, tortured, and sent to a house of prostitution to be mistreated. She was preserved from being violated, and was later put to death.

She is claimed as the patroness of both Palermo and Catania. The year after her death, the stilling of an eruption of Mt. Etna was attributed to her intercession. As a result, apparently, people continued to ask her prayers for protection against fire.

Mabel Lingatong Zozobrado as Saint Agatha

Luke was an Evangelist, the writer of the third Gospel. He never met Christ in person, but in his Gospel he says that he came to know about Jesus by talking to eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection. Hearing those stories helped Luke to become a believer, and he wrote his Gospel so that others would come to know and love Jesus.

Joseph Bonsico as Saint Luke

Saint Maria Teresa Goretti is unique in that she is the youngest canonized saint in the Church. She died tragically on July 6, 1902, at the age of eleven. July 5, 1902: At 3:30 pm she is stabbed by Alessandro Serenelli after resisting his violent attempt to r**e her.

July 6, 1902: Maria dies in Nettuno at the age of 11 years, 8 months and 21 days, after mercifully forgiving her murderer.

Abegail Escorial Caruana as Saint Maria Goretti

Saint Pedro Calungsod, a Catholic Filipino migrant, sacristan, and missionary catechist, who, along with the Spanish Jesuit Missionary, Diego Luis de San Vitores, suffered from religious persecution and martyrdom in Guam for their missionary work in 1672.

John Kiven Bacus as Saint Pedro Calungsod

RPYCC's Presentation of Saints 2020