23 December 2013, 7:30 a.m. – ARCHIVIST and historian Fr. Lucio Gutierrez, O.P. passed away after suffering from cardiopulmonary arrest at St. Martin de Porres Hospital in San Juan last Dec. 21. He was 75.
Gutierrez was the master of students in the Dominican Order’s Macau studentate from October 2009 to 2011, before being transferred to Manila because of poor health.
Fr. Rafael Carpintero, O.P., parochial vicar of Sanctuario de Santo Cristo Parish in San Juan, described Gutierrez as a passionate person in vocation and profession.
“He is a loving person and conscious of his priesthood as a Dominican. In his professional life, he served as a great historian,” Carpintero said in a phone interview with the Varsitarian.
Gutierrez earned a doctorate in Church history from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and started his academic career in UST in 1968.
Gutierrez published five books including “Domingo de Salazar, O.P.: First bishop of the Philippines, 1512-1594: A study of his life and work,” which traces Salazar’s missionary labor in Mexico and Florida, and his defense of the rights of Filipinos at the beginning of Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
With the help of Fr. Cantius J. Kobak, O.F.M., Gutierrez translated three volumes of “History of the Bisayan People in the Philippine Islands” by Fr. Ignacio Francisco Alcina, S. J.
Gutierrez also served as editor in chief of Philippiniana Sacra, the official publication of the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties, from 1973-1990, and served administrator of the UST Archives from 1994-1995 and 2008-2009.
Gutierrez taught Ancient Church History, Medieval Church History, and Modern Church History at the Ecclesiastical Faculties and the Graduate School. Angeli Mae S. Cantillana
