27/09/2024
GOD IS IN THE HEART | Today marks the 36th death anniversary of Venerable Teofilo Camomot.
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Archbishop Teofilo Camomot, now 74 and toughened by years of sobriety, modesty, and service, visited his alma mater, the San Carlos Major Seminary in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City to celebrate the feast of the founder of the congregation who used to run the school before it was turned over to the diocese. That time, he was the president of the alumni association of the seminary. It was also the blessing of a statue of St. Vincent de Paul located in the garden of the seminary.
After taking lunch with acquaintances, he approached His Eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and sought permission to leave. Since it was raining, the cardinal advised him to stay and take an afternoon nap. But Archbishop Camomot said he needed to rush back to Carcar to celebrate Mass at his parish. He told the cardinal that he need not worry because he had a driver to bring him back to Carcar that was an hour's drive away from Cebu City.
Archbishop Camomot knew very well that he did not belong to this world. And as dust returned to the earth as it once was, he knew sometime, somewhere, life's breath shall return to God who gave it. His time came on that fateful Tuesday of September 27, 1988, the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul.
While he was asleep on his way back to Carcar, his Toyota Tamaraw was rammed by an Amadora bus at Sitio Magtalisay, Barangay Sangat in San Fernando town past 2 p.m. Due to the impact, Archbishop Camomot was thrown out of the vehicle, and his head hit the concrete road. He immediately died, while his driver survived.
The tragic news spread throughout the province of Cebu. Cardinal Vidal, accompanied by the archdiocese's spokesperson Msgr. Achilles Dakay, went in haste to San Fernando after they were informed about the accident.
Archbishop Camomot's dead body was then brought to the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Carcar where he served as parish priest for 12 years.
Two days before his death, Archbishop Camomot told Fr. Fulton Varga, who was at that time the head of the altar boys in Carcar, the kind of death he wanted.
“A quick but painful death, so no one will suffer,” the Archbishop said. Asked by Varga why he wanted a painful death, Camomot replied, “So that with the pain, the sins we committed here would immediately be paid for.”
The entire province of Cebu mourned the sudden death of a well-loved man. Tears flowed at his wake where people from different walks of life gathered to pay tribute to one, whose selfless service and love for others, transformed him into a saint among the living. From top government and Church officials down to peasants and ordinary workers, all bemoaned his passing.
On October 5, 1988, thousands of people trooped to the church in Carcar and waited along crowded streets to take a last glimpse of the ever caring arch-bishop. His funeral was considered one of the biggest in Cebu. Cardinal Vidal presided over the 10 a.m. Requiem Mass at St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish in Carcar, along with 18 bishops and 150 priests. After the Mass, the body of Archbishop Camomot was laid to rest at the Catholic cemetery in Carcar.
In 2009, the remains of Archbishop Camomot were exhumed from the family mausoleum. They were eventually transferred to a burial site at the Daughters of St. Teresa in Valladolid, Carcar that has become a pilgrimage site for devotees.
On the morning before he died, Archbishop Camomot planted three Indian trees in front of the DST generelate. At present, all of the trees remain standing. Like a seed that develops into a tree, Archbishop Camomot thrived in this life to transcend himself, not to the pinnacle of greatness and power, but to the boundless beauty of service and humility. His seventy-four years of earthly existence is similar to a tree grown sturdy. His life gave shade and comfort to those who experienced the heat of life's miseries.
Archbishop Camomot may no longer be around, but his legacy and virtues continue to resonate across the regions.
Source: Fr. Mhar Vincent Balili, Vice Postulator of the canonization process of Archbishop Camomot
