When will we have the likes of them again?

In two weeks, the Catholic Church in the Philippines lost two of its greatest musicians to cancer: Dom Benildus ‘Manuel” Maramba, OSB, and Sr. Maria Annunciata Sta. Ana, SPC. The corpus of church music each has left is formidable. Their performances always left a lasting memory.

Both were pedagogues at heart and despite the irascibility for which musicians are notorious, there was a gentle, compassionate, almost cloying side to them. Both, after all, were religious: Dom Benildus, a Benedictine of the Abbey of our Lady of Montserrat, Sr. Annunciata, a sister of St. Paul of Chartres.