Ateneo de Manila University: Encyclopedia II - Ateneo de Manila University - History

Ateneo de Manila University - History

The Ateneo de Manila University began in 1859 as a public primary school established in Intramuros in Manila by Spanish Jesuits. Its founding is closely tied to the history of the Society of Jesus as a teaching order in the Philippines.

The first Spanish Jesuits arrived in the Philippines in 1581 as missionaries. They were also custodians of the ratio studiorum, a Jesuit system of education developed about 1559. Within a decade of their arrival, the Society through Fr. Antonio Sedeño, S.J. founded the Colegio de Manila (also known as the Colegio de San Ignacio) in Intramuros in 1590. The San Ignacio formally opened in 1595, and was the first school in the Philippines.

In 1621, Pope Gregory XV through the Archbishop of Manila authorized the San Ignacio to confer degrees in theology and arts and elevated it to a university. In 1623, King Philip IV of Spain confirmed the authorization, making the school both a pontifical and a royal university, and the very first university in the Philippines and in Asia.

However, by the mid-18th century, Catholic colonial powers, notably France, Portugal, and Spain, had grown hostile to the Society of Jesus because the Jesuits actively educated and empowered colonized people. The Society was particularly notorious for encouraging indigenous people to seek self-governance. Because of this, the colonial powers eventually expelled the Society, often quite brutally, from their realms.

In 1768, the Jesuits surrendered the San Ignacio to Spanish civil authorities following their Suppression and their expulsion from Spain and the rest of the Spanish realm, including the Philippines. Under pressure from Catholic royalty, Pope Clement XIV formally declared the dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773.

Pope Pius VII reinstated the Society in 1814, after almost seven decades of persecution and over four decades of formal suppression. However, the Jesuits would not return to the Philippines until 1859, almost a century after their expulsion.

Through an 1852 Royal Decree from Queen Isabela II, ten Spanish Jesuits arrived in Manila on 14 April 1859, nearly a century after the Jesuits left the Philippines. This Jesuit mission was sent mainly to do missionary work in Mindanao and Jolo.

Because of the Jesuits' entrenched reputation as educators among Manila’s leaders, on 5 August the Ayuntamiento or city council requested that Governor-General a Jesuit school be founded and financed by public funds. On 1 October 1859, the Governor-General authorized the Jesuits to take over the Escuela Municipal, a small private school maintained for some 30 children of Spanish residents. Partly subsidized by the Ayuntamiento, the Escuela was the only primary school in Manila at the time. The Escuela eventually became the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865, elevated to an institution of secondary education. It then offered the bachillerato or bachelor's degree, as well as courses leading to certificates in agriculture, surveying, and business.

After Americans occupied the Philippines in the early 1900s, the Ateneo de Manila lost its government subsidy from the city and became a private institution. The Jesuits removed the word “Municipal” from the school’s official name, and it has since been known as the Ateneo de Manila. In 1908, the American colonial government recognized the Ateneo's college status and licensed its offering the bachelor’s degee and certificates in various disciplines, including electrical engineering. American Jesuits then took over administration in 1912. Fr. Richard O’Brien, S.J., the third American rector, the Ateneo transferred to the location of the San Jose Major Seminary in Padre Faura, Ermita after a fire destroyed the Intramuros campus in 1932.

Devastation hit the Ateneo campus once again during World War II. Only one structure remained standing – the statue of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus which now stands in front of the Jesuit Residence in the Loyola Heights campus. Ironwork and statuary salvaged from the Ateneo ruins have since been incorporated into various existing Ateneo buildings. Some examples are the Ateneo monograms on the gates of the Loyola Heights campus, the iron grillwork on the ground floor of Xavier Hall, and the statue of the Immaculate Conception displayed at the University archives.

But even if the Ateneo campus had been destroyed, the university survived. Following the American liberation, the Ateneo de Manila reopened temporarily in Plaza Guipit in Sampaloc. The Padre Faura campus reopened in 1946 with Quonset huts serving as buildings among the campus ruins.

In 1952, the university, led by Fr. James Masterson, S.J. moved most of its units to its present Loyola Heights campus. Controversy surrounded the decision. An Ateneo Jesuit supposedly said that only the ‘children of Tarzan’ would study in the new campus. But over the years, the Ateneo in Loyola Heights has become the center of a dynamic community. The Padre Faura campus continued to house the professional schools until 1976.

Fr. Francisco Araneta, S.J. was appointed as the Ateneo de Manila's first Filipino Rector in 1958. In 1959, its centennial year, the Ateneo became a university.

Surprisingly, very few coherent and unified narratives of the school's history after 1959 are extant. What follows are anecdotes of landmark events in the past five decades of the Ateneo de Manila University.

The Ateneo's Padre Faura campus closed in 1976 and was sold shortly after. A year after, the Ateneo opened a new campus for its professional schools in Salcedo Village in the bustling business district of Makati. In October 1998, the University completed construction of a bigger site of the Ateneo Professional Schools at Rockwell, also in Makati.

In 2000, the Ateneo de Manila celebrated the Jubilee Year in solidarity with the rest of the Church. The year later saw the community take part in action against then Philippine President Joseph Estrada. In 2001, various sectors in the Ateneo community took part in the popular uprising in EDSA which led to Estrada's ouster.

2002 saw the completion of the Church of the Gesu, the new university church (the first one had been the San Ignacio church in Intramuros, which was destroyed in the Second World War). In 2004, the Ateneo celebrated its 145th anniversary as it joined numerous organization in founding Kalinga Luzon, a group dedicated to the rehabilitation of Luzon in light of typhoons that devasted the Philippines.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki