Life, they say, is the best teacher, but in medicine, even those without life offer powerful lessons.
Medicine students refer to them as “silent mentors” — the cadavers used in anatomy classes to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.
At the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (FMS), nearly 500 medicine students gain from working with these cadavers each academic year, culminating in a ceremony known as the “Inurnment Rites of the Silent Mentors,” which started in 2021.
On April 5, during the third edition of the ceremony, 38 cadavers used by first-year medical students during Academic Year 2023-2024 were cremated. The ashes of each silent mentor were placed in pouches and collected in a marble box, inurned at the Dominican Nuns Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Cainta, Rizal.
Dr. Peregrina Lorenzo-Gonzaga, who pioneered the tradition, said UST’s inurnment rites are unique in the country in honoring the silent mentors who help shape “competent and compassionate physicians.”
“Honoring our silent mentors contributes to the education of future doctors. UST emphasizes human dignity and ethical practice,” Gonzaga told the Varsitarian.
“This program instilled a deep sense of respect and reverence for the human body. Our silent mentors inspire our students not only to be skilled physicians but to be compassionate and empathetic healers.”
Faculty members, students, university officials, and heads from the Department of Anatomy attended the inurnment rites.
Anatomy department chair Dr. Maria Lourdes Santos said the ritual deepens students’ empathy.
“In the past, we didn’t have this. We just remembered them through prayers. But now, we’ve given the cadavers the dignity they deserve,” Santos said.
“Through these rites, we’ve shown them the same respect given to those who pass away with their loved ones beside them,” she added. “We now know where they’re buried. We can visit, pray, offer flowers, or light candles, just like we would for any other person who died.”
The decision to make the monastery in Cainta — where cloistered nuns offer daily prayers for the deceased — the resting place for the silent mentors came from former Medicine regent Fr. Angel Aparicio, O.P., according to Santos.
Presidential Decree No. 856, the Code on Sanitation of the Philippines, permits the use of unclaimed remains for educational and research purposes.
Gonzaga said most of the cadavers at UST are unclaimed remains from public hospitals and funeral homes, with causes of death usually linked to trauma or chronic illness.
Freshman Christopher John Erasquin said the silent mentors gave medicine students a deeper understanding of dignity.
“I believe that silent mentors are the relics of human dignity given to us by God in order for us to respect human dignity and value life,” he said.
Four students delivered eulogies during the ceremony, paying tribute to the cadavers who, as one speaker put it, gave them “the power to heal” even after death.
Gonzaga, also the head of the department’s Section of Gross Anatomy, hopes more medical schools will adopt a similar practice. Another goal of the ceremony, she said, is to increase awareness of body donation.
“It’s very hard to apply or come up with a body donation program because isa naming kalaban is the culture of the Filipino people,” she said. “Ang aming long-term is to have donors and families be aware of this project [kasi] marami nang nagtatanong, especially ‘yong mga gusto mag-donate.”
FMS is in talks with two potential body donors, she said, noting that actual body donations are rare in the faculty. with reports from Jenna Mariel A. Gonzales and Marielle F. Pesa
