MSGR. MARIANO SEVILLA
(1839-1923)
MSGR. Mariano Sevilla, O.P., was born on November 12, 1839 while his mother was on a pilgrimage to the miraculous Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude), the patron saint of San Roque, Cavite. Thirty-five years later, already a full pledge priest, Msgr. Sevilla was implicated in the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 and was banished to the Marianas Islands on March 14 of that year. He had been an articulate member of the secularization movement led by Fathers Mariano Gomes, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora. Released after two years of banishment, he renewed his agitation for church reforms in the Philippines.
The original proposal in Malolos Constitution written by Felipe Calderon advocating a state religion found in Msgr. Sevilla a staunch champion. During the Malolos Congress he founded and edited the paper El Catolico Filipino which favored an official religion, the Catholic Church. So persuasive were Sevilla’s arguments that the proposal nearly passed the Congress, being defeated by only one vote.
Sevilla founded the Colegio de la Sagrada Familia in Manila in 1879. This school offered the first three years of segunda ensenanza. Sevilla was its director from 1893 to 1896. Four years later, in 1900, he established the Instituto de Mujeres, where a younger relative, Rosa Sevilla, taught and later carried on as directress for many years. After the Instituto de Mujeres, Sevilla founded the Sta. Ana Catholic School.
A prolific writer and journalist, Sevilla authored, among others, the Lecciones de Gramatica Castellana en Tagalog (Balarila Tagalog-Español), published in 1887; the Exposicion defending the Catholic religion; and Flores de Mayo, containing prayers and hymns in Tagalog to the Virin Mary. He edited the Spanish monthly, Apostolado de la Prensa, and assisted in the founding of another paper, Vida Filipina, in 1904.
Starting as a coadjutor in San Rafael, Bulacan, shortly after his ordination on February 28, 1863, he was later appointed secretary of the Real Colegio de San Jose, and simultaneously chaplain of the Besterio de Santa Rosa. In recognition of his service to the church, Sevilla was awarded a medal by the King of Spain, while Pope Benedict XV raised him to domestic prelate on November 17, 1920. He died on November 23, 1923, at the age of 84.
[Source: Sol H. Gwekoh, “M. Sevilla, Advocate of State Religion,” Hall of Fame, Manila Times (date of publication inadvertently misplaced).]