MIGUEL DE BENAVIDES, OP, DD
Third Archbishop of Manila (1603-05)
Inspiration and Founder of University of Santo Tomas  

Miguel de Benavides, The Man.

Born in 1552 in Palencia Spain he studied and taught at Valladolid. As a religious he took orders from superiors, was sent and he went to where the preaching of the Good News awaited him. At the age of thirty-four he sailed for Manila, where, with his Dominican confreres, they established the first Dominican province (of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Mother Mary) in this part of the then slowly being known world to the people of Europe. The West was slowly, very slowly, beginning to know the East at that time.

Father Miguel was one of the first missionaries who studied and learned to speak the Chinese language spoken by the Sino community in Manila and he taught and catechized them in their own language. Conversant in the Chinese language he was told by his superiors to proceed to China where he was put to prison. Released after a few years he returned to Spain and was asked to help in the procure of the Order.

Back to the islands he was sent in order to resume the evangelization task he left seven years back. But larger responsibilities awaited him. He was made bishop of Nueva Segovia in the northern part of the islands and in 1597 was appointed the third archbishop of Manila.

The man lived only for 53 years and what a fruitful life he offered to the Lord at the end of his earthly sojourn.

The Missionary

On record he made at least five crossings of some of the planet’s largest oceans and seas. Remembering that sea travel was done in wooden galleons and powered only by wind sails (without much assurance of medical and communication science) continental sea travel was much more than just a physical challenge as also tremendous act of faith in God and in what one was doing.

Yes, those were the years when the evangelization by missionaries went hand-in-hand with the expansion to yet little known territories by the colonizers. But men like Father Miguel de Benavides paid no attention to the potential criticism that could have bound others to fear or perhaps indifference. The fearful they say are always bound to where their comfort and safety are assured.

This missionary priest felt, after much reflection, that God was calling each and every human person to share in the life that belongs to Him, and that this mode of sharing flows right from the love that flows from the Father to the Son and fully shared by both with the Spirit. (AG, No. 2) Unmistakably that love must one day be shared (and please God, soon) with every human person called to life by the same Omnipotent and all loving God. And yet these thoughts found their way in similar expression into the officials Church’s teaching on Missions only within the last 40 years. The Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church is called “Ad Gentes”. That love of God directed to all people, thus contemplated, and often mentioned in prayer and in preaching, was the only motive that accompanied the missionaries like Father Benavides as they crossed oceans, passed through continents and lived with people not of their own culture, stayed with them, dreamed with them and died here.

The Benevolent Dreamer.

It is said that great men start their leadership with a common dream. At the height of the violent colour (race) discrimination in Northern America in the Sixties, Martin Luther King offered the people of whatever race, colour or creed in the States a more tolerant and compassionate society in the now famous speech entitled “I have a dream!”

Archbishop Miguel de Benavides also carved a dream in his mind; he imaged a school where the young will be gathered, accompanied and educated into dignified Christian citizens not much different from he saw and where he taught as a young priest in the city of Valladolid. He must have remembered that the Lord Jesus going around teaching people, underlining the fact that evangelization is teaching and developing people. Like an artists he made sure that the dream will fond colours in the real world. And so before he passes away he set aside a more than substantial amount (then) to start the dream’s transit to the real world.

Six years after his death (1611) the Colegio de Santo Tomas was established in Intramuros. From then on, the Friars of the Order of Preachers, the Dominican Fathers and Brothers, took the responsibility of guiding the institution and its students, personnel and the rest of the country today, thank God, enjoy.

Six years short of UST’s Fourth Centennial Celebration, it becomes clear to all who build institutions, community or even a nation, that it is not enough for one man, like Archbishop Miguel de Benavides to dream; a dream must be pursued by benevolence not just meaning gifts or donation, but benevolence that reaches to its roots in the sense of following the ideal with “good will.” Above all, the dream must be shared.

Very Reverend Father Tamerlane Lana, OP, rector Magnificus of the University of Santo Tomas and the entire community of the Dominican Fathers, more than the Congratulations that you deserve, allow me, in the name of the Archdiocese of Manila, to thank you and the Dominican Priests and Brothers for pursuing to its destined success the dream of the third Archbishop of Manila, the Dominican Archbishop Miguel de Benavides.

Maraming, Maraming Salamat Po!

God Bless!

+G.B. Rosales
26 July 2005