ILIGAN CITY—Fr. Miguel Anselmo Azcona Bernad, S.J., author, teacher, historian, editor, journalist and critic, died Sunday at the Maria Reyna Hospital in Cagayan de Oro City. He was 91.
Bernad “was still up and about, smiling and watching the pigeons at 9 in the morning” when a nurse declared that he had low blood pressure, Fr. Jose Ramon “Jet” T. Villarin, S.J., Xavier University (XU) president, told the Inquirer.
Immediately, his Jesuit colleagues administered the last rites in his room at the XU’s Loyola House. At about 11 a.m., he was brought to the hospital, where he died of myocardial infarction at about 12:58 p.m.
At the time of his death, Bernad was with his Jesuit confreres and relatives, according to Villarin. He described the priest’s passing as “peaceful.”
“We will miss a great writer (but) we’re also celebrating a great life,” Villarin said.
Known to many Filipinos simply as Father Bernad, the priest touched many lives through his writings and lectures.
He was also a longtime literature professor at the Ateneo de Manila University and at XU-Ateneo de Cagayan, and was a visiting professor of literature at the National University and the Tamkang College of Arts & Sciences in Taipei.
Of Spanish, American and Cebuano descent, Bernad was one of eight children of the first Misamis (present day Misamis Occidental) governor and later representative of the Second District of Misamis, Don Anselmo Ledesma Bernad.
Born on May 8, 1917, Bernad grew up in Ozamiz City and was accustomed to having parish priests as guests during meals. “By osmosis, I became a priest,” he once said.
“I had a vocation,” he said during a separate interview with this writer in 2004.
With all his achievements, Bernad considered priesthood “my greatest achievement.”
Deeply Catholic with two sisters becoming nuns, Bernad took his Ph.D. at Protestant Yale University.
He was the first editor of ADMU’s quarterly journal Philippine Studies and he was the pioneering editor of XU’s official journal, the Kinaadman, where he published the epics of Mindanao and scholarly papers on Mindanao’s history, literature, culture and arts.
Antonio Montalvan, director of the Tri-Peoples Museum of Capitol University, described Bernad as “the greatest Filipino from Mindanao” whose “brilliance and love for the island had celebrated the triumph of the human spirit.”
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