Oct. 24 2016, 6:05 p.m. – FR. FIDEL Villarroel, O.P., the country’s “most prolific saint-maker,” died Sunday morning at the UST Hospital following multiple organ failure. He was 87.
The University historian and archivist is credited for writing the “Positio Super Introductione Causae,” the historical research that led to the canonization of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his 15 martyred companions in 1987.
Born on March 18, 1929, Villarroel hailed from Tejerina in Leon, Spain. He took up philosophy and theology at the House of Studies of the Dominican the Convent of Avila.
He was ordained a priest in 1953 and was assigned to the Philippines in 1957, where he served as UST’s archivist for almost 50 years. He also headed the University’s Spanish department from 1957 to 1966 and from 1968 to 1981.
In 2009, the Dominican Order named Villarroel a Master of Sacred Theology, a title revered by the Dominicans and held by the founder St. Dominic de Guzman himself.
Villarroel authored 23 books and 65 articles on theology and the histories of UST, the Philippines and the Church.
Among them were “Apolinario Mabini,” “Father Jose Burgos, University Student,” “Jose Rizal and the University of Santo Tomas,” “Lorenzo de Manila: The Protomartyr of the Philippines and his Companions,” and “The Dominicans and the Philippine Revolution.”
His two-volume book titled “A History of the University of Santo Tomas: Four Centuries of Higher Education in the Philippines,” published in 2012, earned him the Gintong Aklat Award. Villarroel described it as “the best award I have received” in a 2014 interview with the Varsitarian.
In 1984, Pope John Paul II gave him the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice or the Cross of Honor Award – the highest distinction bestowed on the laity by the papacy.
The Spanish government awarded him the Cruz de Isabel la Catolica award in 1985 for his works that exemplified relations between Spain and the international community.
