Thomasians were urged to strive for holiness as a way of exhibiting martyrdom, during the University’s Triduum Masses honoring the Thomasian martyrs.
During the third Mass, UST Vice Rector for Religious Affairs Fr. Pablo Tiong, O.P. called on Thomasians to draw inspiration from the 17 Thomasian martyrs, who were administrators, professors, and students of the University, and who gave up their lives because of their Christian faith and received the “special gift of martyrdom.”
“We may not be called to martyrdom, but we are all called to holiness,” Tiong said. “They (martyrs) inspire us to respond to this call [a]nd it cannot be postponed.”
Tiong said holiness could be achieved through “installments” of good deeds and devotion.
UST Secretary General Fr. Louie Coronel, O.P. said the pursuit to living a holy life should not end in “only celebrating the memory of martyrs.”
“Being holy means being our true self, and our vocation is to be saints. We are all called to make our lives conformed to the gift we have already received, which is being true to the person God created,” Coronel said during the first of the Triduum Masses.
Coronel recalled the life of Blessed Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P., who “bravely declared himself a priest and religious” when he was arrested by armed men in Madrid.
Following his arrest, Paredes was taken to a place of torture and was shot in the head. His rosary and breviary were found near his body.
“We must remember a faithful Thomasian who was true to his name. ‘Paredes’ in Spanish means ‘walls.’ He was indeed a fortified wall that never crumbled in the face of adversity and trial,” Coronel said.
The Thomasian Alumni Center and P. Paredes Street in Sampaloc, Manila were both named after the former UST professor and Dominican master general.
Echoing St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Fr. Hilario Siñgian, Jr., O.P. of the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas said Thomasians “should not only want to be with the saints but also hope to possess their happiness.”
“We should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. We must rightly hope and strive for such blessedness and seek the prayers of the saints,” he said in his homily during the second Mass.
The seven martyrs of the Spanish Civil War are: Blessed Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P., Blessed Jesus Villaverde Andres, O.P., Blessed Maximo Fernandez Marinas, O.P., Blessed Pedro Ibanez Alonzo, O.P., Blessed Manuel Moreno Martinez, O.P., Blessed Jose Maria Carillo, O.P., and Blessed Jose Maria de Manila, O.F.M. Cap.
The five martyrs of Vietnam are: St. Vicente Liem de la Paz, O.P., St. Domingo Henares, O.P., St. Pedro Almato, O.P., St. Jeronimo Hermosilla, O.P., and St. Jose Maria Diaz Sanjurjo, O.P.
The six martyrs of Nagasaki, Japan are: St. Domingo Ibanez de Erquicia, O.P., St. Lucas del Espiritu Santo, O.P., St. Tomas Hioji Rokuzayemon Nishi de Jacinto, O.P., St. Guillaume Courtet, O.P. and St. Antonio Gonzales, O.P.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila — a member of a Dominican Marian confraternity — was also executed with several Dominican missionaries in Japan. Allyssa Mae C. Cruz and Ma. Alena O. Castillo
