Anscar Chupungco

Who was Anscar Chupungco?

Dom Anscar Chupungco, O.S.B., STD was a Filipino Benedictine monk, who was a noted liturgist, theologian and a mentor to all Filipino liturgists and countless students of the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm in Rome and San Beda College in Manila. He was known for integrating local customs and traditions into the Catholic Mass.

Chupungco was born Herminio Javier Chupungco in Cainta, Rizal, to Estanislao Santo Tomas Chupungco and Dominga Javier. He became a monk of the Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in Manila in 1958 at the age of 19, at which time he was given the religious name of Anscar after a great Benedictine missionary saint of the 9th century. He was ordained a priest in 1965. He earned his licentiate in philosophy and theology from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and his doctorate in Sacred Theology, specializing in liturgy, from the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Anselm, learning from the scholars in the field who had served as periti during the Second Vatican Council.

Chupungco became a member of the faculty of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Liturgy in Rome in 1973, the first Filipino to teach there. He was later chosen as the President of the Institute and Rector Magnificus of the Atheneum. He also established the Paul VI Institute of Liturgy in the Philippines in conjunction with the then-Bishop of Malaybalay, Gaudencio Rosales. This faculty was to serve as a center for forming liturgists to serve throughout Asia. He was also one of the co-founders of the Maryhill School of Theology, together with four priests from the Missionary Fathers of the Immaculate Heart.