Founded in 1901 by Spanish monks.
Originally a Grade School and High School, now a 4-level school, with G.S.., H.S.., College of Arts and Sciences and College of Law (co-ed) located in Manila's "University Belt", and a Graduate School located in Malaybalay, Bukidnon.
HISTORY
Colegio de San Beda was founded by Spanish Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Montserrat who had come to the Philippines in 1895 to work as missionaries in the province of Surigao, in the southern island of Mindanao. After being arrested and imprisoned by Filipino revolutionaries in 1899, the monks decided to leave the missions, settled in Manila , and considered another apostolate.
The school opened on 17th June, 1901, with 212 students taking primaria enseñanza and secundaria enseñanza, the equivalent of grade school and high school with the first two years of college.
The country had been ceded by Spain to the United States of America on 10th December 1898, under the Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish-American War. With the introduction of the American public school system and the arrival of Protestant missionaries, the Catholic Church saw the need to defend the faith by establishing schools. As the Rector, Fr. Silvestre Joffre, OSB, said at the inauguration of the school, "The College of San Beda comes to the arena with the sole purpose of helping to defend the Catholic battlements in the field of education"
In 1910 a new law required private schools to apply for government recognition. The college promptly submitted its application and was granted recognition on May 12, 1910. The curriculum was revised. Five hours a week were devoted to American history and English. Primaria enseñanza was restructured into the seven grades of the elementary course, and secundaria enseñanza into the four years of high school and the first two years of college. From that time on, English was used more and more as the medium of instruction. By 1916 one half of the subjects were taught in English. In 1918 all instruction was conducted in English, and the school began to carry the name San Beda College. In 1927 the courses included grade school, high school, the two-year courses of pre-medicine and pre-law, and the first two years of commerce.
From 1940 to 1947 the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat, Manila, was under the apostolic administration of Abbot Alcuin Deutsch, OSB, of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. Three monks were sent to Manila to administer the Abbey and San Beda College. The college welcomed the only American Rector in its history, Fr. Boniface Axtman, OSB.
In December 1941 World War II erupted. The Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Philippines and occupied it from 1942 to 1945. Americans and Europeans were imprisoned in concentration camps. Among them were the three American Benedictine monks.
In December 1941 the college building was occupied by the Quartermaster Corps of the US Army, then, throughout the occupation, by the Japanese Quartermaster Corps, and briefly, after liberation, by a US Army hospital. During the war years, classes were held in the Abbey.
When San Beda College resumed normal operations after the war, the pre-war curriculum was revived. New courses were introduced, some were short-lived, and others, like accountancy and law, became well established.
At present San Beda College has nine departments: the Grade School; the High School; the College of Arts and Sciences, which offers liberal arts and business courses; the College of Law, founded in 1948, which is one of the top three law schools in the country, the Graduate School, founded in 1998, which offers a course leading to a master's degree in liturgy, in consortium with the Paul VI Institute of Liturgy in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, a College of Nursing, a College of Medicine, a Graduate School of Liturgy (...), a Graduate School of Business (...) and a Graduate School of Law. When it was founded, the school occupied a two-story building on Arlegui Street, in the Quiapo district of Manila. In 1926 it transferred to a large three-story reinforced concrete neo-Gothic building on a six-hectare campus on Mendiola Street in the nearby San Miguel district. During the war, part of the property was sold. At the end of Mendiola Street, a few hundred yards away, is Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines.
The school has four major buildings: St. Bede's Hall, St. Benedict's Hall, St. Anselm's Hall and St. Maur's Hall.
Once located in a quiet, middle-class residential area, San Beda College is now part of Manila's bustling "university belt", an irregular crescent curving for about six kilometres through five districts of Manila, containing 26 colleges and universities, the largest ones with about 35,000 students.
San Beda College has 6.070 students - 1,321 in grade school, 1,061 in high school; 2,800 in the College of Arts and Sciences, 888 in the College of Law and 144 in the College of Medicine. There are 282 members of the faculty and 287 service personnel.
Twenty three monks work in the school as administrators, chaplains, teachers and guidance counsellors. Grade school and high school classes start at 7.30 in the morning and end in the afternoon, while college classes start in the afternoon and end at 9.30 in the evening.
San Beda College has 70 classrooms, four libraries, two auditoriums, four science laboratories, six computer laboratories, a medical and dental clinic, three covered basketball courts, a football field, two swimming pools, a quadrangle where graduations are held, a canteen and a bookstore.
The Abbey Church, which is also the College Chapel, is notable for its paintings - 16 allegories on the virtues, theology, and the Church on the vaulted ceiling of the nave; "The Apotheosis of the Holy Name of Jesus" over the sanctuary; eight panels on the Nativity of the Lord on the walls of the sanctuary, and the Fourteen Stations of the Cross. They were painted by a Spanish Benedictine monk, Fr. Lesmes Lopez, OSB, from 1931n to 1938. In this chapel and under these glowing paintings, the school year begins with the celebration of the Solemnity of St. Bede on June 17, and ends with the Graduation Masses held during the week before Holy Week.
On June 17, 2001, San Beda College will celebrate its centennial. |
