Augustinian Filipino priest died of coronavirus at 72 in Spain —report

A 72-year-old Filipino Augustinian priest died of coronavirus in León, Spain on May 1, a Catholic news site reported Saturday.

An article in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site said Father Gilbert Luis Centina III of the Augustinian missionaries died due to complications from COVID-19.

According to the report, Centina was a celebrated Catholic author and poet.

Among his accolades include his winning the Palanca Memorial Awards, the country’s highest literary honor, in English poetry in 1975. In 1983, he also received the Focus Magazine literary award in English poetry.

He was the author of five poetry collections: Getxo and Other Poems, Triptych and Collected Poems, Somewhen, Glass of Liquid Truths and Our Hidden Galaxette.

Fr. Centina was laid to rest in the presence for this Augustinian community on the same day he died, the report added.

The same report said that Last March, a 71-year-old Filipina Benedictine nun also succumbed to Covid-19 in Spain, the second worst-hit country in the world after the US.

Sr. Maria Gratia Balogot, who was superior of their community in India, contracted the virus while on a short visit to Spain to renew her visa.

As of May 2, Spain registered more than 215,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with around 24,800 deaths. —LBG, GMA News