(Published in The Tacloban Star, September 12-18, 2004, pp. 1, 4, 5.)
He was undoubtedly the greatest historian of Samar and the Bisayas region in the previous century. And now he is gone.
For forty years, Father Cantius J. Kobak, OFM, researched and wrote about the history and culture of Samar Island in particular and the Bisayas region in general.
After concluding his monumental task, and weakened by the cancer that he battled over the past two years, he welcomed “Sister Death” who called him home at the age of 74 years in the evening of August 15.
Missionary in Samar
Fr. Cantius was born in Poland on June 29, 1930. He migrated in 1937 to the U.S., where he finished all his studies. In 1939 he became a Franciscan and was ordained a priest in 1957.
While studying theology, he became enthralled by the newsletters coming from the friars in the Philippine missions. By the time of his ordination, he had one desire: to join his friar-brothers and serve the poor on Samar Island. It took two years before permission was finally granted to make his wish come true.
Fr. Cantius began his missionary odyssey as a teacher at the Christ the King College (CKC) in Calbayog, Samar in 1959, said Father Jerry Tokarz, OFM, secretary of the Franciscan Friars of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) Province in Wisconsin, USA, in a special tribute to the deceased priest in a recent issue of their provincial newsletter.
“[Kobak] taught philosophy, theology, education, English and Filipino literature to the clerics,” Tokarz continued. “Within six months, his enthusiasm and energy earned him the appointment as rector of the minor seminary and guardian of the friar community. Despite these responsibilities … he managed other pursuits, like preaching assignments in Manila, as his scheduled allowed.”
Historical and cultural researcher
During academic breaks, Fr. Cantius began cultivating an interest in the history and culture of Samar Island, which was prompted by the virtual absence of any publication about these subjects upon his arrival. His curiosity led to extensive research, and even archaeological excavations in various areas of the island.
In 1967, Fr. Cantius co-founded with Father Anthony A. Buchcik, SVD, the Leyte-Samar Museum and the Leyte-Samar Studies journal of the now-closed Divine Word University in Tacloban.
In 1968, he founded the CKC Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum in Calbayog.
In 1970, Fr. Cantius was transferred to Manila. He served at the Santuario de San Antonio Parish in Forbes Park until 1974, and then took assignments in other parishes later. But he continued his research and writing on Samar history and culture.
He was the foremost authority on the Sumuroy Rebellion in Samar in 1649.
His scholarly articles were initially published in Leyte-Samar Studies. Later, they were published in Philippiniana Sacra, the journal of the University of Santo Tomas.
Fr. Cantius’ greatest scholarly achievement was the tracing (in various European and American museums), transcribing, translating from Spanish to English, and publishing or preparing for publication all extant copies of the manuscripts of Father Francisco Ignacio Alcina, SJ, known in the academic community as the Historia de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas … 1668.
The first two parts of his seven-volume work on the Alcina manuscripts now appear in book form under the title History of the Bisayan People in the Philippine Islands (Vols. 1 and 2), which was co-edited by Father Lucio Gutierrez, OP, and published by the University of Santo Tomas Press.
The Alcina manuscripts on the Bisayas provide the most complete and extensive ethnographic account of any regional group in the Philippines in the 17th century.
Kindness to fellow historians
Fr. Cantius was particularly helpful to fellow historians interested in Samar and the Bisayas region.
In the early 1970s, he helped American scholar Bruce Cruikshank with his doctoral dissertation research on Samar. This was the first extensively documented research on the local history of Samar, which was completed in 1975 and came out as a book titled Samar: 1768-1898, published by the Historical Conservation Society in Manila in 1985.
Fr. Cantius was the first name mentioned in the book’s Acknowledgment.
In 1984, Dr. William Henry Scott, another prominent historian based in Sagada, Mountain Province, had purchased from the British Museum a microfilm copy of the Vocabulario de la Lengua Bisaya, the oldest Bisayan dictionary completed by Father Mateo Sanchez, SJ, in Dagami, Leyte around 1616 and published in Manila in 1711.
But Scott did not have a microfilm reader, and electricity reached Sagada only the year before. To make his task simpler, he wrote a letter verifying from Fr. Cantius if he had a typescript of the same document. He was promptly lent the bound volumes of the document for photocopying.
This display of generosity by Fr. Cantius enabled Scott to reconstruct the sixteenth-century Bisayan society and culture that went to his last two books, Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino and Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society.
The latter book was posthumously published the year after Scott passed away in 1993.
Back to the U.S.
In 1989, Fr. Cantius returned to the U.S., a few years after the Filipino Franciscans had formed an independent province in 1985. He served much of the time at the Mission Office of his Franciscan Province in Wisconsin.
In 1998, Fr. Cantius was appointed chaplain of St. Anne’s Nursing Home in Milwaukee, his last assignment. There he continued his research and writing on Samar history and culture, which coverage he expanded to Leyte after he had completed the volumes on the Alcina manuscripts.
It was his search for biographical information on Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, the author of Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte (Manila, 1914), which got him in touch with this writer in late 2002.
And there started their extensive correspondence and collaboration by e-mail over the next two years.
Around the middle of last year, Fr. Cantius was admitted to the hospital for a different illness. It was then that he was found out to be suffering from cancer of the lymph glands, for which he underwent chemotherapy over the next few months.
Around July last year, he decided to bequeath to this writer his unfinished manuscripts and their publication rights. He also bequeathed the last related items in his personal library and archives and sent these by parcels to the Philippines.
This was the final act of generosity from an extremely generous man.
Fr. Cantius passed away the day after this writer had finished writing the draft of the manuscript for the first book they were collaborating on, titled The Colonial Odyssey of Leyte (1521-1914).
He was buried at the cemetery of his Franciscan Province in Pulaski, Wisconsin, last August 20.
Advise to cancer patients
Last May, this writer sent to Fr. Cantius an e-mail expressing his grief about also having two other people close to him suffering from cancer - an aunt and a colleague.
Fr. Cantius answered a reassuring message, which he allowed to be quoted in some future article. He said:
“Try helping your friends with the Big ‘C.’ Not an earnest wish or demand for healing; it will not happen. Life may be extended and stretched [only] for some time.
“The best, from our Christian stance is: Lord, Your will be done!
“This orientation makes one totally free. No scheming, no hassles, no worry what will happen, how soon, how quickly, etc. If I set my heart on struggling for healing or miracle, hoping for it, [and] praying for it does not get me anywhere. I would not be free; I would have imprisoned myself, shackled [by my] healing wish.
“Due to our broken human nature... God permits matters to take its course. Rarely, rarely does a miracle happen. It's like trying to win a 100 million dollar lottery ... What chances!
“I am of this conviction and orientation: God’s will be done... His choice.
“Although the ups-and-downs are with me, I am not really troubled. I know what is coming. When St. Francis heard of his near-death illness, he shouted with joy: ’Welcome, Sister Death!’
“Death cancels out all cancers, all pain, and grant us eternity and perfect joy.
“I am fortunate: I know what is coming and it’s coming slowly. Thus, I have precious time to look back at my life; correct many sins, violations, infidelities to my Franciscan way of life; look back with joy for the multitude of Blessings; and praise the Lord with Thanksgiving.
“Time for more prayer, meditations, reflection, spiritual reading, Scripture reading.
“I have time to make apologies to those whom I have hurt and write appreciatively to many for their [acts of] goodness and kindness. That's the way to go, Rolando. Honestly, it is an adventure.”