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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Reverend Father Miguel A. Bernad, SJ: Persona Integra awardee
"A PERSON standing on the shoulders of the giants sees clearly what's in the horizon and becomes a giant himself allowing others to see what he sees." Miguel Anselmo Bernad y Azcona is one such giant, a scholar of Filipino History, Literature and the Classics whose prolific writings and wisdom have influenced Philippine academia for over sixty years.
Father Bernad was born on May 8, 1917 in Ozamis City in the then vast province known as Misamis. He was educated in the public schools of the town. But it was the bucolic and genteel lifestyle of the quiet little town that influenced the life story of this man. In many of his writings, he constantly refers to Mindanao as his roots, the great island of his birth, citing the journeys of the region's travails in the pages of history. Thus, attributes to the uniqueness of the man, a true-blooded Mindanaon who became its illustrious scholar and one of its brilliant sons.
Father Bernad's education is nothing less of the exceptional. 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.
He 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.
He 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 then followed 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.
The numerous titles authored and co-authored by Miguel Bernad since his "Bamboo ad the Greenwood Tree" published by Bookmark in 1961, makes it almost impossible to produce an abridged list. His writings have addressed topics and issues that continue to see relevance in the classroom pedagogy of today: essays on Filipino Literature, Filipino History, History of Dramatics, Filipinos in Vietnam and Laos, Biographies of Aguinaldo and Rizal, the Philippine Revolution, Mindanao History, among many others, including academic publications that he co-authored on fiction poetry and drama with the Tiempos of Siliman University.
His academic teaching has been equally prolific; 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 at the 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. These do not yet include his numerous well-attended symposia and public lectures in many places in the country where his perspectives have privileged teachers and students, scholars and writers.
Two of the most highly respectable journals in Filipino academia have been catapulted of the scholarly world both here and abroad by Father Bernad; 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.
Over those years, Kinaadman has built a reputation of Mindanao scholarship and has become a treasure trove of data on Mindanao culture, true to the sobriquet that Bernad has referred to it, a journal of the Southern Philippines.
On Mondays each week, a whole nation of keen followers read Father Bernad address momentary issues of Filipino contemporary life in his column, At Random, in the Philippine Star where he has built a writing style known for its brevity and succinctness.
He has also been a member of the Manila critics and the Academia de la Lengua Española.
It is not of insignificant moment that the name of Miguel Bernad 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.
Education is a journey of a pilgrim in search of life's lessons and the truths.
Here is a man whom Capitol University draws inspiration from its pursuit to help build the persona integra, the Total Person, who will dedicate the fruits of education to establish that culture of truth in society, so well-lived by father Miguel A. Bernad of the Society of Jesus.
On Wednesday, the very person of Fr. Miguel Bernad will be conferred The Persona Integra at the Capitol University at 3 in the afternoon.
(July 13, 2005 issue)
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