The Urban Roamer

Rizal, Santo Tomas, and Sampaloc

August 3, 2014June 18, 2011 by The Urban Roamer

As you may have noticed these past few entries, we have devoted space in this blog on the University of Santo Tomas campus. But on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of the Philippines’ National Hero, Jose Rizal, allow me to take a little diversion of this trip to talk about this school’s “relationship” with our hero.

a photo of Rizal in his late teens, possibly around the time he was a UST student

To anyone with some knowledge of Rizal’s biography, it is a well-known fact that Rizal entered University of Santo Tomas in 1877 and managed to get a degree in Philosophy and Letters two years later. He then proceeding to medicine, ophthalmology to be precise, for the next 2 years before going to Spain to finish medicine and get his degree.

Manila’s Pontifical and Royal campus (Part 6)

August 3, 2014June 7, 2011 by The Urban Roamer

Being the country’s oldest university, it should not be a surprise that the University of Santo Tomas holds a significant number of titles in its library. In fact, UST’s book collection dates back to as far as before the founding of the university, when these books were first owned by Dominicans, (who among them was the university’s founder himself Miguel de Benavides) who donated their book collections for the establishment of what is now UST. As was mentioned previously, UST was first founded as a school for theology, philosophy, and law; most of these old books dealt with those particular subjects.

Over the years and centuries, UST library collection got accumulated as its older items became more valuable. I don’t know if there have been any books that have been lost or damaged throughout that time, but it’s good to know much of its old collection has remained intact and well-preserved, unaffected by war and its move from the old campus at the Walled City to the new one at the Main Building at the wider Sampaloc campus.

Manila’s Pontifical and Royal Campus (Part 5, a center for faith and thought)

August 3, 2014May 31, 2011 by The Urban Roamer

By the 1930’s as the University of Santo Tomas began to settle itself comfortably at its new home in Sampaloc, plans and works were under way for the expansion of what was then just a one-building complex in the middle of what was then a vast tract of land that was its campus. One of the buildings being planned was one that would serve as the University church and residence as well: of the Dominican priests who are assigned there and the seminarians learning to become Dominican priests themselves.

Manila’s Pontifical and Royal Campus (Part 4)

August 3, 2014May 26, 2011 by The Urban Roamer

ustsampaloc — the Urban Roamer’s UST campus map

Located right next to the St. Martin De Porres Bldg. in the University of Santo Tomas campus is another academic building named after a saint. Despite it being named after a Dominican friar and who is a patron saint of lawyers (especially those studying canon law) and UST offering degrees in civil and canon laws, the St. Raymond of Peñafort Bldg. is not the home of the university’s law programs. Completed in 1955, the building is home to the Faculty of Arts and Letters and the College of Commerce and Business Administration.