Gabriel Reyes

Gabriel M. Reyes was born on March 24, 1892, in Kalibo, Capiz. He entered St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary in Jaro, Iloilo at the age of 13, during the time of Bishop Frederick Rooker. He was ordained a priest on March 27, 1915, by Jaro Bishop Dennis Joseph Dougherty. After ordination, he was immediately appointed coadjutor parish priest, and later Parish Priest of the Jaro Cathedral. A few months later Gabriel was sent to a very challenging mission to Balasan, Iloilo, the farthest town of Iloilo up north. As the parish priest of this town, he covered sixteen small islands with neither roads, chapels nor convents but only ruins amidst an increasing number of Aglipayan and Protestant churches. In 1918, he was transferred to be the parish priest of Capiz, Capiz. On July 20, 1920, he was chosen as the diocesan chancellor and secretary by the new bishop of Jaro, Msgr. James McClosky. He was also the parish priest of Santa Barbara, Iloilo. In 1927, he was named the vicar general of Jaro, serving until his appointment to the episcopacy. ==Episcopacy==

In 1932, Pope Pius XI appointed Reyes as Bishop of Cebu. He received his episcopal consecration in the Cathedral of Jaro, on October 11, 1932, from the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Guglielmo Piani, with Bishop McClosky and Lipa Bishop Alfredo Verzosa, as co-consecrators. Two days after, he was installed in Cebu. On April 28, 1934, after more than three centuries, the Diocese of Cebu was elevated by Pope Pius XI into an archdiocese, with Reyes as the first archbishop. It was in this context that he renovated the Cebu Cathedral, which had been bombed during World War II. On August 25, 1949, he was appointed by Pope Pius XII as coadjutor to Manila Archbishop Michael J. O'Doherty with right of succession. On the death of the Archbishop on September 29, 1949, he took over the archiepiscopal See of Manila, being its first Filipino archbishop. As archbishop of Manila, he oversaw the construction of the new campus of San Carlos Seminary in Makati in 1951. A Catholic center he wished to build when he became archbishop of Manila was built by his successor, the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center, on U.N. Avenue in Manila. ==Death and Legacy==

Reyes became ill and died at the age of 60 on October 10, 1952, in Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was the immediate predecessor of two Filipino prelates who became cardinals: Julio Rosales, who succeeded him in Cebu, and Rufino Santos, who succeeded him in Manila. Likewise, a major thoroughfare in Cebu City traversing from Barangay Camputhaw to the junction of Barangay Kasambagan, Lahug and Barrio Luz was named as Archbishop Reyes Avenue. ==References==