The neo-Gothic façade with twin towers and slender spires announces the presence of a church on Mendiola Street, the tip of Manila’s university belt. Flanking it are the long façade of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat on the right, and on the left the longer façade of San Beda College. This position accounts for the double identity of the church. The monastic community calls it the Abbey Church while the school population calls it the College Chapel, for it serves the Abbey and the college, and is a source of pride for both. The monks sing the Divine Office and celebrate the Conventual Mass daily in the sanctuary, and students, teachers, administrators, and workers gather for Masses that celebrate various events in the life of the school.

One enters the church through one of the three arched portals. The bronze doors with colored panels of synthetic material are the work of Eduardo Castrillo. In the dim, sombre vestibule are white marble angels holding the holy water fonts. As one enters the nave, one experiences the sudden expansion of space and an unexpected profusion of color. The high vault of the nave, which is embellished with paintings, ends in the half-dome over the sanctuary which is entirely covered with a magnificent representation of heaven, earth and hell. On the walls over the arches along the nave are the Stations of the Cross, and on the walls of the sanctuary are paintings of the Nativity and Infancy of the Lord.

The paintings are the most famous and most admired feature of the church. While contemplating them, one could overlook another remarkable feature, namely, the configuration of the interior space, particularly the play of structure and space, and the relationship of indoor and outdoor space. The strikingly decorated vault and half-dome arrest and engage the eye, and could well be the object of prolonged examination. The vault is a completely enclosed space, a firmament of color, with its clustered ribs setting a rhythm complemented by the majestic sequence of paintings that lead to the climactic vision of heaven on the half-dome.

As the vault descends, it expands gradually, first towards the lateral choir lofts with their open arches and arched windows, then further on to the aisles and side chapels at the main floor level. The nave is flanked by aisles, which are in turn flanked by the chapels, outside of which are arcaded galleries that open to the abbey gardens. Columns and arches mark these spaces which are parallel to each other and flow into each other. The space of the nave flows through these peripheral spaces to the green outdoors, visible through wrought iron grills.

The totality of space, color and light suggest a double movement, downward and upward: the life of heaven flowing down to earth and humankind, represented by the worshippers, and life on earth gathered and lifted up to the glory of eternity.

The church was designed by the Swedish architect George Asp, whose works include the first buildings of Holy Ghost College (now College of the Holy Spirit) on Mendiola Street and St. Theresa’s College on San Marcelino. The church was completed in 1925 and dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus on January 13, 1926. In it are enshrined the image of the Santo Niño de Praga, carved by Maximo Vicente Sr. in 1903, and the image of Our Lady of Montserrat. The addition of the side chapels and galleries was the project of Fr. Peter Celestine Gusi, OSB, who was Abbot of the monastery from 1947 to 1958.

The paintings are the work of Fr. Lesmes Lopez, OSB, a Spanish monk, whose previous work included murals for the monasteries of Montserrat, Samos and Monforte in Spain, and New Norcia in Western Australia. The decorations around the paintings were done by Bro. Salvador Alberich, OSB, a Spanish monk.

Lopez and Alberich arrived in the Philippines in December 1930, and soon started the first set of paintings and decorations, namely, those on the ceiling of the nave. To fill the sixteen panels of the ceiling, Lopez composed sixteen allegories. One of these, entitled Peace, was completed in March 1931. Then followed that same year Innocence, Meekness and Penance. Within three years, Lopez finished Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude, Faith, Hope, Charity and Religion, and Theology, Mystical Theology, The Church and Heaven and Hell. In May 1934, he completed the Apotheosis of the Holy Name of Jesus which adorns the ceiling of the sanctuary. On the walls of the sanctuary are representations of The Nativity, The Circumcision, The Holy Family at Nazareth, Jesus with the Teachers in the Temple, The Adoration of the Magi, The Presentation in the Temple, The Flight to Egypt, and The Annunciation.

A photograph published in January 1937 shows that the Stations of the Cross had not yet been painted. These were probably finished in 1939.

Since the church was dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, Lopez conceived the Apotheosis as the centerpiece, basing it on Philippians 2:10: "At the name of Jesus every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth". The painting thus depicts in the upper section the heavenly court with God the Father, the Virgin Mary, and the angels and saints; on the left lower section the various nations of the world, and on the right lower section, hell with its flames, dragons and tormented souls. At the center is a circle with JHS, the first three letters of the name of Jesus in Greek.

After finishing his work, Dom Salvador Alberich, OSB returned to Spain in 1939 and died there in 1956. Fr. Lesmes Lopez, OSB remained in Manila. He died in 1943, and his bones rest in the cemetery beside the apse of the church. Through his paintings in the church, he continues to sing praise to the Lord together with the generations of monks who treasure his legacy. Because of his labor of love, they could well exult with the psalmist, "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of Hosts!"

In 1926, the Benedictines of Manila transferred to the newly-built church in Mendiola under the titular images of the Holy Infant of Prague and of Our Lady of Montserrat. The severity and simplicity of the style of the new church, and the unusual conditions that render it one of the most comfortable in the city, were a call to the faithful from the date of its consecration. Their request to adorn the aisles and vaults was heeded at last. To carry out the restoration plans, Fr. Lesmes Lopez, OSB, one of the best interpreters of art in the Order came to the Philippines in 1931.

THE PAINTER

Fr. Lesmes Lopez, OSB, born in a little Spanish village, after finishing his religious training, travelled to Rome and Venice where his native talents were stimulated to self-expression. A note-worthy pupil of the well-known maestro, Antonio Fabres, Fr. Lesmes realized his true call for art visiting the world-famous collections of Tiepolo and Veronese in Venice. His work at Montserrat, Samos, and Monforte, Spain as well as at New Norcia, West Australia would be enough to deck up the walls of several well-sized galleries. His latest piece of work is offered to the public in the Benedictine Church of San Beda. Dom Salvador Alberich, OSB, a native of Spain like the master, deserves credit for the setting and decoration.

ALLEGORIES

Sixteen life-size oil paintings adorn the church ceiling. These pictures are a series of allegorical subjects giving symbolic human shape to virtue and vice, or virtue and its effects; representing the science of Theology and Mysticism with their chief commentators; one of them interprets allegorically the Last Things: Heaven, the reward of a true Christian life, and Hell, or the punishment due to sin.

As we enter the church and lift up our eyes to admire the works along the vault, we meet two long rows of maidens and matrons glancing down on us with the most inviting look; some to hold in place the heavy volume whence a fitting scriptural while close near the main upper figure angelical forms struggle to hold in place the heavy volume where a fitting scriptural text calls our attention. In colors more somber, and below the allegorical maidens, the contrasting figure of the anti-type lurks; SIN beneath INNOCENCE, WAR under the allegory of PEACE, etc.

If reviewed from the entrance of the church, the allegorical paintings are classified as follows beginning with the left row:

Facing the altar again from the vestibule, we see the pictures on the right arranged as follows:

THE SANCTUARY

THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE HOLY NAME. Heaven, earth and hell convene in a grand gathering, where the Saints of God, more particularly those that wrote about "HIS HOLY NAME" are shown: amongst the apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John; St. Augustine and St. Anselm and St. Bonaventure with the bishops; among the founders, St. Ignatius and St. Bernard, besides many confessors and virgins. At the head of such glorious gathering are the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. Two angels show to "everything that be" the Monstrance and the Cross as conclusive proofs of Christ’s victory over all powers. Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia bring gifts to Jesus. Across on the right side, the torments of Hell convince the damned of the triumph of Jesus in "Whose Holy Name" they refused salvation.

MAIN ALTAR

Made of cedar wood. The Holy Infant of Prague occupies the chief place in the center, while the founders of the Benedictine Order, St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, hold a place to the right and to the left of the principal image.

SANCTUARY PANELS are eight in number. They are a masterful display of color over the seven known scenes of the child-life of Our Lord. Their arrangement is as follows:

LEFT SIDE –

RIGHT SIDE –

WAY of the CROSS

Completing the artistic improvement of this church, 14 additional paintings distributed over the sides of the main aisle commemorate some of the incidents marking our Lord’s ‘WAY of the CROSS’ from Pilate’s tribunal hall to Mt. Calvary and the sepulchre.

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