Cebu City to hold necrological service for National Artist Resil Mojares

The Cebu City government will pay its final respects to National Artist for Literature Dr. Resil B. Mojares on Thursday at Cebu City Hall.

According to the Cebu City Cultural and Historical Affairs Office, a Holy Mass will be held at 9 a.m., followed by necrological services at 10 a.m.

Public viewing will begin at 11 a.m. and will be open to those who wish to honor Mojares and his contributions to Philippine literature and culture.

“The public is invited to join the City of Cebu in honoring the life and legacy of one of its most distinguished sons,” the announcement said.

Mojares passed away on September 5. He was 83 years old.

He was conferred the title of National Artist for Literature in 2018 in recognition of his contributions to Philippine literature and scholarship.

As the founding director of the Cebuano Studies Center, an institution that helped put Cebu on the map for research and documentation, Mojares also played a pioneering role in shaping Cebuano and national identity.

For more than five decades, Mojares contributed to cultural and literary history through various forms of writing, including fiction, essays, journalism, scholarly articles, and books, while actively engaging with numerous organizations.

Among his notable works published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press were “Theater in Society,” “Society in Theater: Social History of a Cebuano Village, 1840–1940 (1985),” “The War against the Americans: Resistance and Collaboration in Cebu, 1899–1906 (1999),” and “Waiting for Mariang Makiling: Essays in Philippine Cultural History (2002).”

He also authored “Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes, and the Production of Modern Knowledge (2008),” edited the two-volume “Sugilanong Sugboanon (2009),” and wrote Interrogations in “Philippine Cultural History: The Ateneo de Manila Lectures (2017)” and “Enigmatic Objects: Notes towards a History of the Museum in the Philippines (2023).”

—Carby Rose Basina/CDC, GMA News