Metro Manila

SERVING AS A SPIRITUAL haven for the Thomasian community, the UST Chapel is the most appropriate place for the Thomasian practice of faith. This has become the venue for various university religious activities which include the annual Misa de Apertura, a decades-old tradition of officially opening the academic year with a Mass of the Holy Spirit and the delivery of the academic lecture called the Discurso de Apertura; the annual novena to Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary for the La Naval celebration; and the Heritage Christmas Concert.

Manila Archbishop Michael O’Doherty canonically inaugurated the UST Chapel into the Santisimo Rosario Church on April 26, 1942.

During the Japanese Occupation of Manila, the Chapel of the University of Santo Tomas was designated as a Parish Church and has remained such to this day. However, on campus, it is still identified as the UST Chapel and serves as a spiritual haven for the Thomasian community. It is also the venue for Eucharistic Celebrations, recollections and other religious activities.

On September 28, 1942, after the Sto. Domingo Church in Intramuros had been damaged during the initial bombing raids of World War II, the image of Our Lady of La Naval was tranferred, for reasons of safety, to the UST Chapel, and was enshrined there until October 10, 1954. The image was again transferred in a solemn procession to the newly-erected Convent of Santo Domingo in Quezon City.

In commemoration of the 50th year of the said transfer, the image of Our Lady of La Naval returned to the University on October 1, 1992. After the nine-day novena, Our Lady was brought back in a solemn procession to her shrine in Santo Domingo Church.