SPANISH Dominican Fr. Juan Lera Mateos, O.P., died on Thursday at the Dominican Convent of the Holy Cross in San Juan. He was 88.
Mateos was one of the few remaining Spanish missionaries belonging to the Holy Rosary Province of Spain who were assigned to the Philippines.
In 1956, he was ordained to priesthood in the Dominican Order and was sent to the Philippines, where he worked in schools and parishes in the Babuyan Islands.
He was assistant parish priest of the Shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan from 1960 to 1968.
The Committee on Naturalization granted him Filipino citizenship in 1971.
In 1993, he was elected prior of the Holy Cross Convent in San Juan.
His remains were laid to rest at the Santuario del Santo Cristo Cemetery on Saturday.