The Catholic Church in the Philippines celebrates its 500th anniversary in 2021. To celebrate this monumental year, they have joined with pop singer Jamie Rivera to release “We Give Our Yes.” The song is a jubilant reflection on 500 years of faith, paired with a wonderful music video that highlights the Philippines faith journey.

Did you know that a member of the Order of Malta, Antonio Pigafetta ( c. 1491 – c. 1531) was an Italian scholar and explorer from the Republic of Venice was with the explorer Ferdinand Magellan when he brought Christianity to the Philippines?

Antonio Pigafetta joined the expedition to the Spice Islands led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan under the flag of King Charles I of Spain and after Magellan’s death in the Philippines, the subsequent voyage around the world. During the expedition, he served as Magellan’s assistant and kept an accurate journal, which later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language. It is the first recorded document concerning the language.

Pigafetta was one of the 18 men who made the complete trip, returning to Spain in 1522, under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano, out of the approximately 240 who set out three years earlier. These men completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Others mutinied and returned in the first year. Pigafetta’s surviving journal is the source for much of what is known about Magellan and Elcano’s voyage.