Devotees celebrate Saturday , Aug. 19, the feast day of Saint Ezekiel Moreno, the revered patron saint of cancer patients.
Saint Ezekiel Moreno (Photo courtesy of Catholic Online)
Commemorative masses will be held in parishes placed under his patronage in the country such as at the St. Ezekiel Moreno Oratory in Las Pinas City.
Monsignor Bobby Olaguer will celebrate a holy mass with anointing of the sick with holy oil at 4:30 p.m.
Novena masses were offered from Aug. 10 to 18. Bishop Jesse Mercado celebrated a holy mass in honor of St. Ezekiel on Friday, Aug. 18.
Feast masses will also be celebrated at the St. Ezekiel Moreno Parish in Kaunlaran Village, Caloocan City. Novena masses were offered from Aug. 11 to 19. This year’s feast of St. Ezekiel coincides with the 30th parish fiesta.
Known as a miraculous saint, St. Ezekiel was a member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects. He was born on April 9, 1848, in Alfaro, La Rioja in Spain and later served as a missionary to the Philippines, arriving in Manila on Feb. 10, 1870.
He received and finished his minor orders in Jaro, Iloilo in 1870. In 1871 after his sacerdotal ordination, St. Ezekiel was sent to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro for his first mission and where he was said to have become proficient in Tagalog.
Two years later, he served as Military Chaplain to a penal colony, now known as the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan. He was among the founders of the town of Aborlan, Palawan and Barangay Inagawan in Puerto Princesa. He was later sent back to Calapan where he was assigned as Vicar Forane of Mindoro at 28 years old.
In 1876, St. Ezekiel was transferred to Las Piñas City and worked zealously for the development of the lives of the people in the area. He was later transferred to Santo Tomás, Batangas and then appointed as General Preacher of the Order of Augustinian Recollects in 1880 and as parish priest of Santa Cruz Church in Feb.1881.
In 1888, he left the country for a Recollect mission in Colombia. St. Ezekiel died of cancer on Aug. 19, 1906 at the age of 58 in Montegudo, Navarra in Spain. The Pope now Saint John Paul II canonized him on October 11, 1992.