Jan. 27, 10:27 p.m. – 
BELLS TOLLED to usher in UST’s fifth century as Thomasians closed the year-long Quadricentennial festivities with a day of worship, songs, and celebration.
A solemn Eucharistic celebration, led by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma – president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and a UST alumnus – highlighted the last day of the closing week dubbed “Neo-Centennial” Week, with the clergy and faithful recalling the lives of 15 Dominican saints and martyrs produced by the University.
“We gratefully conclude this year knowing that the season of grace proclaimed by Jesus never ends,” he said at the introduction to the celebration at the Jubilee Door of the University Chapel.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas praised UST’s legacy in his homily, calling it the “mother of all schools and colleges in the Philippines.”
“All schools in our country somehow carried a Thomasian influence, even the Jesuit schools, even if they are too proud to admit that,” said Villegas, whom the Rector, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., noted is not a Thomasian but has nonetheless a deep affection for UST.
But while UST has served as “mater et magistra” or mother and teacher to successful alumni all over the world, Villegas said there are also “ignored, forgotten, refused, convicted, despised, and hated” Thomasians, to whom UST’s jubilee should also be dedicated.
“Our dear alma mater, like all mothers, holds dear to her heart [her] forgotten sons and daughters buried in the tombs of anonymity by our unthankful society,” he said in the Mass at the UST Grandstand and Open Field.
Villegas said UST is set apart from other schools because of the food it feeds to its children – Jesus Christ. “The other universities produce excellent men; the University of Santo Tomas produces other Christs,” he said.
In his message at the end of the Mass, De la Rosa thanked Villegas for his tribute to UST, and quipped that a non-alumnus was tapped to give the homily so Thomasian clergy and Dominicans won’t be accused of “carrying their own sofa.” The Rector thanked members of the CBCP for concelebrating, as well as organizers of the Quadricentennial, administrators, faculty, support staff, alumni, and students. The Rector also thanked the Varsitarian.
De la Rosa announced that there would be no classes tomorrow, Saturday, the Solemnity of St. Thomas Aquinas.
UST welcomed the new Manila archbishop, Luis Antonio Tagle, who led the renewal of baptismal vows. Tagle, in a short message, congratulated UST for breaking into its fifth century.
Caceres Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi, O.P., the first Filipino rector of UST, led the congregation in remembering the Thomasian martyrs of Japan, Vietnam, and the Spanish Civil War. “We enter the new century of the University of Santo Tomas inspired by the memory of the UST martyrs,” he said.
Palma granted a plenary indulgence to those who attended the Mass, in accordance with the privilege granted by Pope Benedict XVI for the Quadricentennial, which had been proclaimed a Jubilee Year.
The chorale then erupted into the Hallelujah Chorus of Handel’s Messiah, after which bells tolled in thanksgiving for the past 400 years and the dawn of UST’s new century.
40,000 voices
The Mass was followed by community singing dubbed “40,000 Voices,” in which the crowd at the Open Field joined the UST Singers and other University chorales in singing “Holy Art Thou”; a medley of Philippine folk songs; Abba’s “Thank You for the Music,” “I Have a Dream,” and Chiquitita”; “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”; the Quadricentennial Hymn; and the UST Hymn. Prof. Herminigildo Ranera conducted the UST Symphony Orchestra.
The singing was capped by an eight-minute pyromusical display, with fireworks at the Arch of the Centuries, the Grandstand, the Main Building, and the Central Seminary Building. It was followed by an “agape” and a variety show. Rommel Marvin C. Rio
