Jesuit historian Miguel Bernad laid to rest

MANILA, Philippines — Jesuit historian Fr. Miguel Bernad was buried Wednesday in Cagayan de Oro City, three days after he died at age 92. He was interred at the Jesuit Memorial Cemetery at Manresa, Cagayan de Oro, after a concelebrated Mass presided by Fr. Jose Cecilio Magadia, SJ, the Jesuit provincial superior. An article posted Tuesday on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines website (www.cbcpnews.com), quoting Ozamiz City Vice Mayor Carlos Patrecio Bernad, the historian's nephew, said Bernad died at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Maria Reyma Hospital in Cagayan de Oro due to cardiac failure. According to CBCPNews, Fr. Bernad was born on May 8, 1917 in Ozamiz City and was educated in the public schools of the town. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1932 at the Jesuit Novitiate at that time located in Padre Faura Street in Manila. His Juniorate and Philosophy were spent in the Jesuit Sacred Heart Seminary in Novaliches. The priest studied Theology at Woodstock College in Maryland where he graduated his licentiate magna cum laude. It was also at Woodstock where he was ordained priest in 1946. His final profession was pronounced in the chapel of Fordham University in New York, the same year he studied Greek and Latin classics in that Jesuit University. Bernad completed his Master of Arts in Yale University on that same year and the following year his Doctor of Philosophy in 1951 also in Yale. In 1961, he studied at Harvard University and continued as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale University in 1962. At Stratford-upon-Avon in England, he also studied Shakespearian Drama at the Shakespeare Memorial Institute. As a high school teacher at the Ateneo de Manila at the old campus in Padre Faura in 1939 until the outbreak of war in 1941; then from 1945 to 1977 as professor of English Literature in college and the Graduate School of Ateneo de Manila University; in 1971 as visiting professor of English Literature in Taiwan National University and the Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences both in Taipei; professor of Literature at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan in 1977 and his Summer Lecture series at Ateneo de Davao University, Ateneo de Zamboanga University and at Bukidnon State College. He conducted numerous well-attended symposia and public lectures in many places in the country where his perspectives have privileged teachers and students, scholars and writers. He was behind two of the most highly respectable journals in Filipino academia: the Philippine Studies of Ateneo de Manila University, today an internationally referred journal of very respectable repute and the Kinaadman Journal of Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan which he has edited since 1977 until his valedictory in the summer 2005. He has also been a member of the Manila critics and the Academia de la Lengua Española. Bernad's name has been listed in the dictionary of International Biography of Cambridge, England in the Whos' Who in Asia and the Pacific Nations, also published in Cambridge; and the Who's Who in the World published in New Providence, New Jersey. Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma led a mass for the repose of his soul at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Immaculate Conception Chapel, Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City. On Tuesday afternoon, Fr. Asadas Balchard presided the mass at Xavier University Chapel. - GMANews.TV