A century of love and service: 鈥楽t. Scho鈥� legacy in Pampanga
The building where Benedictine nuns ran SSA at Barangay Sta. Teresita in San Fernando, until perennial flooding prompted the transfer of the campus to the village of Quebiawan in 1972. —Photos courtesy of DWRW-FM and from SSA Golden Jubilee Yearbook
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — A hundred years ago, five German nuns—Crescentia Veser, Luitgard Schanbeck, Rudolphine Bildstein, Richarda Herrman and Celsa Rieger—laid the foundation for what is now St. Scholastica’s Academy (SSA) in this Pampanga capital.
From the 1970 Synod of Bishops, the Benedictines adopted an encyclical making its Catholic education focused on the empowerment of girls and boys to become evangelizers and agents of change for social justice and transformation, said Sr. Mary John Mananzan, SSA superior and directress.
“Kulasa,” a localized term for Scholasticans, is the unique identity that evolved over the decades.
The pioneers did not go nameless and faceless, with Mother M. Gertrude Link remembering them 50 years into this year’s centennial. Their names are cited on SSA’s website.
Link, then the prioress general of the Congregation of Benedictine Missionary Sisters, wrote in her golden jubilee message: “The chronicler of the Manila Priory recorded exactly 50 years ago, June 4, 1925, the following: ‘The last bunch from Baguio leave the train before Manila … because they were destined for Pampanga.’”
CENTENNIAL MARKERS San Fernando Archbishop Florentino Lavarias leads the clergy and Benedictines in unveiling the centennial markers of St. Scholastica’s Academy (SSA) in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga.
The five nuns were sent at least 19 years after the congregation set up a priory in Manila in 1906. The congregation, inspired by the twins St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, originated in Tutzing, Germany, in 1885. The Manila Priory station in Baguio was started in 1917.
According to an account by former high school principal Luz Arceo, the five nuns came at the request of Msgr. Prudencio David, who wanted a “strong Catholic school” in the parish of San Fernando, which was then under the Archdiocese of Manila. David founded the Assumption Academy where the “zealous” sisters worked starting in June 1925.
Veser, the superior, led the team. Schanbeck served as directress while Bildstein, Herrman and Rieger worked as teachers. A sixth nun, Clodesindis Lueken, became prioress.
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Arceo said a small house of the Singian family near the Baluyut Bridge served as the first home of the nuns. Assumption Academy graduated the first batch of 18 high school students in March 1930.
Because the house they called a “herring box” could not accommodate more students, David moved the Assumption Academy to the poblacion (town center).
School sites
According to Msgr. Eugene Reyes, head of the archdiocesan commission on church heritage, the poblacion structure was called the Assumpta Building beside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Barangay Sto. Rosario. This, he said, is still owned by the Archdiocese of San Fernando.
According to Reyes, the old SSA site was in Ponduan, also called Barangay Sta. Teresita. It was not clear in the Arceo account if it was the Assumpta Building or the old site in Ponduan that was transferred to the ownership of the Benedictines in 1938.
Reyes said the Japanese Imperial Army used the old SSA site as a military hospital during World War II because there were no large facilities available after a massive fire gutted the cathedral and nearby structures in 1939.
Assumption Academy, Arceo wrote, was renamed SSA in 1966 to “avoid a great deal of confusion” with the newly opened Assumption College, now the University of the Assumption, which the archdiocese runs.
SCHOOL SPIRIT Scholasticans, also called “Kulasa,” celebrate in the Benedictine spirit of “Ora et Labora” (Pray and Work). Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB, (below) now superior and directress, leads St. Scholastica’s Academy’s plan to be a college. —Joanna Cordero and Tonette Orejas
Importance of education
As floods worsened, the Benedictines moved SSA to a 10-hectare campus at Barangay Quebiawan in March 1972. The Benedictines provided temporary sites for the Social Action Center of Pampanga and the Don Bosco Academy-Bacolor campus after lahar flows buried many lands following Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption.
Pampanga scurried for education during the early American period. The Pampanga High School, established as a public school in 1902, received 25 of the 600 American teachers who arrived aboard the ship USS Thomas.
The advocates of Catholic education among priests drew in the Benedictines. Responding to the request of the Archdiocese of Manila, they administered since 1922 the Holy Family Academy. Fr. Pablo Gamboa founded this as a parochial school in 1906.
In 1922, the Benedictines took over St. Mary’s Academy, which Fr. Pedro Santos had established as Bacolor Catholic School in 1919. As parish priest of Angeles, he loaned a vacated annex building in 1933 to Holy Angel University. As a bishop in 1940, Santos founded Ateneo de Naga with the Jesuits.
The Benedictine Order presently operates nine schools in the country.
CELEBRATION School mascots join the ceremonial kickoff of St. Scholastica’s Academy’s centennial in June 2024. —Joanna Cordero/Contributor
Milestone
Robby Tantingco, head of the Center for Kapampangan Studies, said of that post-Spanish era: “There was a rush to open high schools for the elementary graduates. So there was a mushrooming [of schools].”
For its milestone, SSA has been holding a yearlong celebration since July 2024, with the Benedictine spirit of “Ora et Labora (Pray and Work)” reflected in the theme “100 Years of Love and Service.”
Activities include a lecture series, tree planting at SSA grounds, a sports fest, a homecoming and a Eucharistic celebration led by the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, Most Rev. Charles Brown, last February.
The Gawad HuSSay at SSAysay, scheduled on June 21, recognizes graduates who exemplify the Ora et Labora spirit in diverse fields and contributions to Pampanga and the country.
“We are going to work towards having a college department because in the next 100 years, dapat naman there is a fundamental growth,” said Mananzan, formerly the dean of St. Scholastica’s College in Manila.
The all-girls and women setup is over. The congregation opted for it to give girls and women a “chance for leadership.”
“I believe we have succeeded in really empowering women so that even young girls can really compete with the boys. The Benedictine education is part of women empowerment,” Mananzan explained.
