Plaza Santo Tomas

University of Santo Tomas (UST) 🏨

It is the oldest existing university in Asia. In terms of student population, it is the largest Catholic university in the world in a single campus. The institution was established through the initiative of Bishop Miguel de Benavides, O.P., third Archbishop of Manila. On July 24, 1605, he bequeathed the amount of one thousand five hundred pesos and his personal library for the establishment of a “seminary-college” to prepare young men for the priesthood. Those funds, and his personal library, became the nucleus for the start of UST and its library.

The founding of the University of Santo Tomas followed on April 28, 1611. With the original campus located in Intramuros, the Walled City of Manila, UST was first called Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario, and later renamed Colegio de Santo Tomas, in memory of the foremost Dominican Theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas. 🏰

Pope Innocent X

On July 29, 1619 the Colegio was authorized to confer academic degrees in theology and philosophy. By November 20, 1645, Pope Innocent X elevated the college to a university. In 1680, it was subsequently placed under the royal patronage of the Spanish monarchy. In 1681, Pope Innocent XI declared it a Public University of General Studies allowing it to confer other degrees. In 1734 Pope Clement XII authorized the University to confer degrees in all existing faculties as well as in all others that might be introduced in the future. The Pope also approved the curriculum in the entire field of jurisprudence. 🇪🇸

The expulsion of the Society of Jesus from the Philippines in 1768 left the University of Santo Tomas as the only institution of higher learning in the islands. ✝

Text from: https://www.ust.edu.ph/university-history/