MANILA, Philippines – Spanish-born priest Father Horacio Rodriguez, a pillar of the Augustinian religious order in the Philippines, died at the age of 93 on Friday morning, December 27.
Rodriguez was also a founding father and longtime rector of Colegio San Agustin (CSA) in Makati City, one of the leading Catholic schools in the country.
“The Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines announces the passing of Fray Horacio Rodriguez Rodriguez, OSA, to eternal life this morning, December 27, 2024, the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist,” announced the Augustinians in the Philippines.
“We enjoin everyone to pray for the eternal repose of his soul,” the Augustinians added.
Rodriguez was born on August 12, 1931, and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on May 26, 1956. He was sent as missionary to the Philippines in December 1961, the Augustinian order said.
At the 55-year-old CSA Makati, he served as rector from 1980 to 1984, and from 1994 to 2008, according to the Augustinians. He was concurrently principal of its grade school department for many years.
He was also a leader of the local Augustinian community, having served as regional vicar of the Augustinians’ Vicariate of the Orient from 2002 to 2006.
A video tribute by CSA Batch 1997 said Rodriguez “was literally our father while growing up in San Agustin” and “was a permanent fixture on our campus grounds,” walking in his white priestly vestments and long, black belt.
“You would know his presence whenever you’d see a bunch of excited children converging at a single place. Children simply loved Father Rodriguez,” the tribute said. “Father Rodriguez always taught us about Augustinian values, and we always enjoyed his booming voice and boisterous laughter whenever he’d give his special remarks no matter the occasion.”
Robynne Concepcion Reyes, a CSA teacher and administrator for the past three decades, described Rodriguez in a Facebook post as “one of the kindest, gentlest, and most loving persons I knew in CSA.”
“We all have stories about him — how he knew every employee’s birthday and how he’d seek the celebrant just to personally greet him or her, how he always had a Mentos candy for everyone who greeted him, how he would call the students and even teachers ‘chukie, chucky,’ and how he was always fair and just and put the welfare of students above everything else,” Reyes recalled.
Rodriguez also served as one of the few remaining Spanish links between Augustinians in the Philippines and their counterparts in Spain.
Founded in Italy in 1244, the Augustinians — formally known as the Order of Saint Augustine — follow the example of Saint Augustine of Hippo, a 4th-century bishop who is considered one of the greatest Christian thinkers in history.
The Augustinians hold special significance in Philippine history because they were “the founders and first apostles of the Catholic faith in the Philippines,” arriving in the country in 1565 along with Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
Spanish Augustinian friars administered many Catholic parishes in the Philippines for centuries.
To this day, the Augustinians — now Filipinos — run the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu, which houses the country’s oldest religious relic that dates back to the Spanish colonial era.
One of the other legacies of the Augustinian order in the Philippines is Colegio San Agustin, which started operating on July 7, 1969, in the posh Dasmariñas Village in Makati City.
The school’s prominent alumni include Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, actresses Kris Aquino and Heart Evangelista, and broadcast journalists Karen Davila and Tina Panganiban-Perez.
Rodriguez was one of the two Augustinian priests who first ran the school with 24 lady teachers in 1969. – Rappler.com
