Rev. Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, OP: Celebrating the Life and Ministry of a Dominican Physicist on his 120th Birth Anniversary

Note: This article on Rev. Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, OP, written by Rev. Fr. Norberto Castillo, OP, former Rector of the University of Santo Tomás and an alumnus of the UST College of Science, was originally published in Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. LI, No. 152 ( Jan-Apr 2016). Rev. Fr. Louie Coronel, OP updated the footnotes and made some addenda in 2020.

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Rev. Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, OP (1900-2020): Celebrating the Life and Ministry of a Dominican Physicist on his 120th Birth Anniversary

Who is a Dominican religious? This is a tough question to respond to, considering the rainbow spirit of the Order of Preachers. It will be tougher still when it comes to describing a person as detached as Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, OP. Indeed, there was nothing unusual or extraordinary with him... and that makes him a difficult subject to paint – extraordinariness in ordinary times.

Father Akong of the Main Building

The students of the College of Liberal Arts of the mid-1950s fondly called him “Akong.” It was a shortened local adaptation to his name Ciriaco, no doubt an expression of affection for the soft-spoken Dominican. Most probably, he never knew he was called by that name, but if at all, he was a kind of religious who did not worry about trivial matters. He was a very focused person to be easily bothered. Of average build, slightly bent, he walked fast traversing the distance from the UST Main Building to the Fathers’ Residence in few minutes only. Oftentimes, he was silent and meditative unless spoken to.

The College housed at the third floor of the Main building combined the departments of Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Physics with the Departments of Philosophy and Letters.[1] The latter was very well known in the country for its graduates monopolized the Philippine world of local broadsheets, government posts and the coveted literary awards, while the former was known for its chemistry and biology departments. The former was chaired by the legendary Dr. Mariano Pangan who later became dean of the College. The biology department was the natural feeder of students for the Faculty of Medicine which the University excelled. The laboratories were located at the fourth floor.[2]Students were few and, at most, there were two sections per year. Female students outnumbered the males.[3] The wearing of standard uniforms was compulsory for females. Famous were the two stairs for students to use, one for males and another for females, one at the right and another one at the left. Fr. Modesto Mata, OP, Prefect of Discipline, seemed to be ubiquitous in catching offenders. Seldom were students seen to use the front wooden stairs which were used by College officials and guests. Classic murals reputed to be works by Botong Francisco and Fernando Amorsolo graced the lobby marble walls, and a stately chandelier hangs at the entrance as centerpiece. The Main Building which was reputed to be earthquake-proof[4] was located at the center of the campus with its P. Noval kin building, earlier built because it housed the Fathers’ Residence and the Ecclesiastical Faculties. The University of Santo Tomás grew out of the Ecclesiastical Faculties as initial seed following the European model of academic universities.[5]

Father Akong was dean of the College[6]and he took particular care of the Departments of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Physics, while the assistant dean, a canon lawyer, Florencio Testera, OP, took care of the humanities. Father Akong was quite visible to students of the college since he faithfully patrolled the corridors during class hours and during break time, always in his Dominican habit. His mere presence was enough message of the need of good behavior and silent talk. The dean did not have to assert authority in matters of discipline. Proper behavior pervaded the atmosphere of the College. Faculty members were at the forefront of discipline as they were visibly the good examples to students. During the afternoon sessions, Father Akong would be seen coming to office on time and he would walk the corridors praying his divine office. He looked rested fresh from a short siesta.

The Ministry of Father Akong

Fr. Ciriaco OP was born on 8 August 1900, the very Solemnity of St. Dominic. He made his religious profession on 8 September 1916, the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. An observant Dominican religious, prayerfulness was part and parcel of his life even when he was inside his office doing his multifarious duties. He finished his theological studies in Rosaryville, Louisiana, USA. Later on, he was sent to Notre Dame, Indiana to pursue studies in physical sciences. From Notre Dame, he continued his studies in the sciences at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. earning his master’s diploma while he simultaneously continued his theological studies at the Dominican House of Studies across the Catholic University. It was early in life as a religious that he learned the value of time and the essence of good working habits. He started his academic administrative experience at the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán in Intramuros, Manila, where he earned his Lectorate, a characteristically Dominican degree, in 1929, while at the same time teaching mathematics and physics.[7] At the College, he got a more serious and overall initiation in administrative office serving as Secretary-General of the Colegio. Aside from his deanship experience, he was Regent of the College of Commerce, Moderator of the Varsitarian and the Unitas,[8] and Vice Rector of the University.[9]He attended various international conferences. As result of his services to the scientific world here and abroad, he was awarded the special decorations of Golden Cross and the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice. Taciturn by nature, he preferred to do what he was about to do in silence without fanfare. That he accomplished whatever was expected of him well is manifested by the increasing duties and offices he was appointed to perform.

The UST Faculties of Medicine, Law, Education, Sciences, Ecclesiastical Faculties, High School, among others, had their own staffers and published regular journals.[10] Those were the times when every college and department of the University had a journal. It is not surprising that the students learned to write because there were venues available for their articles. It is no wonder too that excellent professors and mentors in the English language mushroomed and were nurtured in the University classrooms. The premier venue which became a well-known university flagship and even throughout the archipelago was the Varsitarian which, aside from news features, carried literary articles in magazine form.

Fr. Pedrosa was no exception and he contributed articles to the journals Unitas, Acta Manilana, Philippiniana Sacra and Ciencia Tomista. Some of his publications in the Unitas, for example, were “The Eclipse of the “Inventors” (1963, vol. 36, 2); “The BIG and the SMALL Science: A Challenge” (1967, vol. 36, 3). With these examples, you will note that he would publish regularly in the publications of the university despite the many duties he had to perform. He wrote textbooks in Physics and Cosmology.[11] He edited the journal on Natural Sciences, the Acta Manilana, which turned out to be a premier international journal on natural products until today. He co-authored articles with The Thomists in the campus like Prof. Pedro Gabriel, who was a chemist, too, on the link between Natural Sciences and Thomism. Like a good son of St. Dominic, he evangelized through the written word. He was not particularly known as an excellent speaker, but he was a prodigious writer. His times depended a lot on the published materials and print media and this medium was the most popularly used. His brains went straight to his fingers and despite a myriad of duties, e.g. administration and teaching, he still found time to read and write articles. This speaks of the discipline in his lifestyle. His was the typical Dominican hardware of scholarship – contemplation and publication. His style of writing spoke of his personality. His prose was short and in outline form, and it is always aimed at the substance of the subject free of embellishments. Classic examples would be his textbooks and laboratory manuals in physics which were entitled Lecture Outlines for College Physics. His pedagogy was clear and student oriented followed by Guide Questions and Exercises at the end of every chapter. The same approach was used in his textbook Guide to Cosmology and Special Questions in Cosmology. The style was modular devoid of verbosity. The topics worked out were fundamental and relevant.

‘Dies Natalis’

After long years of service as a Dominican religious, he was hospitalized at the University hospital. His mind remained strong and conscious even when his body was beginning to fail. It was a case of a superior spirit over matter. Up to the last moments, he was conscious, and when his Prior asked him whether he could remove the last tubes which sustained him, he relented with an assent in his face. He died at the University of Santo Tomás on 7 November 1989. The University offered a funeral mass at the university chapel presided by the then Rector, Very Rev. Fr. Norberto Castillo, OP. He was interred in the Dominican cemetery at San Juan City.

[1] In 1964, however, the Bachelor of Arts program was transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and the College of Liberal Arts was renamed as the College of Science. Fr. Pedrosa continued to serve as the Dean of the newly formed College of Science from 1965-1968. He would even later be named as Dean Emeritus of the College in 1981 (see documents on Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, OP, UST Archives).

[2] These laboratories housed most of the chemicals and other materials that were used in most science experiments when the Sulucan (Sampaloc) campus of the University was opened. Later, especially with the establishment of the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex, science experiments were done in venues other than these laboratories. In 24 April 2017, Very Rev. Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, OP, former UST Rector, led the blessing rites of the Central Laboratory Building, which is the new house of the laboratory skills facilities of the Faculty of Pharmacy, College of Science, and the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, along with the Laboratory Equipment and Supplies Office (LESO).

[3] The Miguel de Benavides Library of UST (Filipiniana section) preserves the invitations for the University’s Solemn Investiture Ceremonies from 1954-1962 and beyond. The bound invitations for 1954-1962 reveal the list of graduates where a remarkably higher number of female graduates, in comparison to their male counterparts, is evident.

[4] A description of the newly constructed main building was narrated in Philippine Educational Magazine (December 1927). The book of Fr. Fidel Villaroel, OP, A History of the University of Santo Tomás, vol. 2, quoted in length this description (Manila: University of Santo Tomás, 2012), pp. 342- 343.

[5] See Fr. Fidel Villaroel, OP, A History of the University of Santo Tomás, vol. 1 (Manila: University of Santo Tomás, 2012), p. 37.

[6] Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (1949-1964) and continued to hold this post (1965-1968) when the college was renamed as College of Science in 1964 (see UST Archives, files on Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, O.P.)

[7] On the account of the first lay Registrar of the University of Santo Tomás (Sulucan campus), Dr. Norberto de Ramos, Fr. Pedrosa’s stay in Colegio de San Juan de Letran was from 1926-1936 (see UST Archives, files on Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, O.).

[8] The Varsitarian was the official student broadsheet of the University, while the Unitas which today is no longer published, was the official academic journal of the faculty members

[9] Fr. Pedrosa was also once appointed as Acting Rector of the University of Santo Tomás: December 1960-March 1961 (see UST Archives, files on Fr. Ciriaco Pedrosa, OP).

[10] Some of these titles include Acta Manilana, Unitas, Philippiniana Sacra, Boletín Eclesiástico de Filipinas, UST Commerce Journal, UST Law Review and later Journal of Graduate Research (1970), and The Flame: Journal of the Humanities (1973). Student publications, which are still published until the present, were also circulating like The Varsitarian (for College students) and The Aquinian (for UST High School).

[11] His textbook in Physics, Lecture Outlines for College Physics, was reprinted several times and was used for classroom instruction from the 1950s to the 1980s. His book on cosmology, A Guide to Cosmology, was also reprinted several times and was used from 1970s up to the 1980s.