Treasured memories - Fr. James Reuter and Sta. Ana

Amidst the Hayden Kho–Katrina Halili, Lakas-Kampi-CMD and Senate controversies, I need to pause to write about important treasures of our history and culture that needs urgent attention as well.

Last week the Heritage Identification for Tourism group with Sylvia Lichauco, Dr. Jaime Laya, Architect Manolo Noche, Eric Zerrudo, Ivan Henares, Councilor Lou Veloso, Danilo Lacuna and Gemma Cruz Araneta held a workshop at our O.B. Montessori Center, Sta. Ana branch. Their objective is to preserve and protect Sta. Ana’s historical, cultural and environmental heritage. 

Remember a few months ago there was a buzz about a big conglomerate buying one of the heritage homes in Sta. Ana? The residents in the area were worried sick about how this company can preserve the historical and cultural heritage of the area. It was also during this time that news on the sale of the Jesuit Xavier House came out. We saw Father James B. Reuter being interviewed on television. He looked nostalgic and sentimental about the place where he lived for more than half of his lifetime. A few weeks after, all Jesuits were asked to pack up and leave the premises. Father Reuter had to go as well.

Upon hearing the “eviction” of all Jesuits from the said house, I felt very sad. I grew up in Sta. Ana. I studied there from preschool to grade school at my mother’s O.B. Montessori school which has been there since 1971. The house belonged to the Lichauco’s and was under the custodianship of Oscar Arellano, head of Operation Brotherhood International. Arellano then turned over the organization to my mother Preciosa Soliven who continued the mission of the organization that led to the establishment of Operation Brotherhood Montessori Center, Inc.

My mother wanted to keep the look of the old house. She loved the natural and cultural feel of the architecture. After 38 years, OBMCI Sta. Ana still looks the same. As a matter of fact, it has never looked more beautiful and radiant with the hundred year-old acacia trees surrounding the premises.

The Spaniards established settlements in Santa Ana that served as the seat of Namayan. The area was awarded to the Franciscan missionaries when the Spaniards arrived. The missionaries asked the natives the name of the area pointing to the banks of the Pasig River. The locals responded with “sapa” or the Tagalog word for marshes. They then dedicated the district to Saint Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and called it, “Santa Ana de Sapa”, or Saint Anne of the Marshes. 

Today one of the landmarks of the Sta. Ana district is the Our Lady of the Abandoned Church where the image of Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados brought by the Spaniards in the 17th century can be found.

When I visited Jessie Lichauco during her 97th birthday celebration a few months ago, in her beautiful Sta. Ana home, she showed me pictures of a British family who lived there circa 1700 during the ‘Seven Year Wars’ when the British occupied Manila. In the pictures, I saw how the summer-like mansions stretched out toward the clean Pasig River. Yes, so picturesque as the illuminated landscapes in paintings done by Amorsolo. She told me how the Lichauco family acquired all three homes in Sta. Ana that are all identical, one of which is where our O.B. Montessori school is presently located and the other is the Xavier House of the Jesuits. 

The Jesuits who lived at Xavier House were very close to the students of OBMCI. They officiated the masses, visited and enjoyed talking to us over the wired fence. What made this more special was that one of the Jesuit brothers, Brother Calixto “Tito” Silverio is my mother’s brother who would visit the school quite often.

I knew then that Father Reuter kept office in Sta. Ana and that he also lived there. He was very close to my family – the Solivens. I was happy and content knowing that he was just around the corner. 

My father who once wrote of Father James B. Reuter said: “He came to our country as a young Jesuit scholastic (seminarian) and has lived and worked with us, indeed became a “Filipino”, for most of his life. I remember him when he was young, incredibly handsome (like the actor Paul Newman) and a friend of my mama and our entire family. He was later slapped into prison camp by the Japanese. My mother trying to support nine orphaned children, when she was widowed in wartime, became a modista or seamstress, and sewed the sotanas or cassocks for all of the Jesuits. Fr. Jim is one Jesuit who still wears such white sotanas with panache, although he has grown thin as a result of his unending labors – we’re proud of his being a columnist for our STAR – a source of inspiration to us all, his readers and admirers. When my mother died, Father Reuter took care of the funeral Masses and other arrangements. He continues to be the best of the best. Those of my generation who studied at the Ateneo were blessed by having Fr. Jim as our teacher, as well as an entire slew of terrific American Jesuit professors: Father Thomas B. Cannon, S. J. (our Dean of Journalism), Father Tom O’Shaughnessy, S.J.; Father Henry Lee Irwin, S. J. who taught us speech, drama, and how to love life; Father Gough, S.J. who taught us Latin, Religion – and backbone – as well as handball; Father George Meany, S.J.; Father Austin Dowd, S. J. who taught us manhood and track & field (“For the first 50 meters run as fast as you can, and for the last 50 meters, run faster!”); Father Greer; Father Lewis Mudd; and, of course my boss – I worked as his secretary – our late Rector and President, Father Bill Masterson, S. J.; whose folly was to buy Loyola Heights and move the Ateneo there. God bless Father Jim – and God bless them all!”

Father James B. Reuter celebrated his 93rd birthday last May 21. When asked what his birthday wish would be, Fr. Reuter said: “I wish for universal peace in the Philippines. That would be peace of soul, peace of mind, peace of heart, and peace in everything they do. I wish for a leader who thinks of the good of the people and not his own good, someone who thinks of the next generation and not the next election, and wants to give rather than take.”