Tag: Quadricentennial Supplement

IT WAS, indeed, a celebration imbued with unending grace. As the Quadricentennial Week came to a close, Thomasians converged on campus to share an evening of feast and cheer in celebration of the 400th birthday of their beloved alma mater. Two gatherings, separated by the Main Building, were held last January 28 for this occasion.

At Plaza Mayor, graduates returned to their second home for a special alumni homecoming titled “One@400,” where they had the chance to relive UST memories and renew their commitment to the values they learned from the university.

Definitions

Versatile performer John Lapus gave the abbreviation ‘UST’ three other meanings, highlighting the encompassing excellence of the University in all fields.

65 - for 65 years, Benavides’ statue has stayed in the relocated UST Campus in Sampaloc, Manila after it was blown from its pedestal in Intramuros during the Battle of Manila

44,842 - is the total population of Thomasian students.

21.5 - hectares of land holds the UST campus in Sampaloc, Manila. This piece of land was donated to the Dominicans by Francisca Bustamante Bayot who bought it from an auction by the Santa Clara nuns.

40 - separate small towers serve as the foundation of the main building.

9 - The number of UST’s academic program that gained center of excellence status from the Commission of Higher education.

THE CRANE slowly lifted the flowing gold satin that covered the monument. Save for the trompe l’oeil tarpaulin that used to cover it and which showed more or less the design of the monument, the spectators—thousands of them—had no idea what the actual monument looked like. So they gaped and gawked at the direction of the crane, in suspended animation. When the veil was lifted, triumphant music blared and fireworks broke out, celebrating the inauguration of the QuattroMondial, the awe-inspiring monument in dazzling bronze and glass erected to mark the 400th anniversary of the University of Santo Tomas.

C.S. Lewis, a famous British novelist and Christian apologist, once said that a Christian “does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” Even in its beginnings, UST, Asia’s premiere Catholic education institution, was able to hone exemplary Christians who chose to leave the comforts of an ordinary life to spread the faith across nations despite many dangers.

The University has produced 11 saints and six martyrs -- all members of the Dominican Order -- three of them bishops. Among the saints are St. Antonio Gonzales, O.P., who became a UST rector, and Blessed Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P., a former Master General of the Order of Preachers.

Gallows and pit

A DECADE of hard work, hundreds of manuscripts, and millions of pesos later, the UST Publishing House has finally achieved its ambitious goal: “400 Books at 400.” In fact, it exceeded the target by five more titles, a significant contribution in the school’s Quadricentennial celebration.

IT IS only once in a while that UST is visited by the Dominican Master General, and the highest official of the Order of Preachers was immensely pleased with what the University has become after 400 years of existence.

Very Rev. Fr. Bruno Cadore, O.P., who holds the highest position in the University as Chancellor, said he was “very impressed” by UST’s intellectual “diversity,” which reflects its Dominican heritage.

“The order is very interested, from the beginning, to promote [everyone’s] capacity to think and to think freely, because the human intelligence is really a great force for freedom in this world,” Cadore told the Varsitarian after a meeting with Filipino Lay Dominicans at the Angelicum College in Quezon City last February 5.

Transcript of Pope Benedict XVI’s video message last January 28:

Your Eminences, your Excellencies, dear friends, I am pleased to send my warm greetings to students and alumni of the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas as it celebrates the 400th anniversary of its foundation.

This is a significant event in the life of the Church and although I cannot be with you physically, I am happy to speak to you personally in this way to lend myself to you spiritually; and for all of you, my affection and congratulations on this happy occasion.

TO HER, UST will always be a majestic “castle in the middle of the desert.”

Meet Amadea Medina, one of the few Thomasians who have seen the University back when it was just a lone building in the middle of a lot in Sulucan Hills, where trees stood high and bushy and any interaction between the descendants of Adam and of Eve was forbidden.

This century-old Education alumna endeared herself to the predominantly young Thomasian crowd during the Quadricentennial Grand Program last January 27 at the UST Grandstand.

“I feel proud to be a Thomasian,” Lola Amadea said with a smile.

THE MANY challenges of UST student life are presented through the aural-visual dynamism of digital cinema in the Q Short Film Festival, a student film competition held in connection with the UST Quadricentennial.

A SAYING goes that whoever does not take the time to look back will not be able to go forth. For the Thomasian alumni who have gone to different places to spread the light of the Church, coming back to their alma mater was easy. After all, this was where they were molded to become faithful servants of the Lord.

More than 400 members of the Philippine clergy took the rare opportunity of their beloved University’s Quadricentennial celebration to “relive, rekindle, and reminisce” during the 76th UST Alumni Priests Association (Alpa) Homecoming last January 28 and 29 at the Central Seminary.