Eduardo Hontiveros

Rev Fr Eduardo Pardo Hontiveros, SJ PMM(Ph) (20 December 1923 – 15 January 2008), also known as "Fr. Honti", was a Filipino Jesuit composer and musician, best known as an innovative hymnwriter behind popular Philippine liturgical music.

He was born in Molo, Iloilo City, one of eight siblings, to José Hontiveros and Vicenta Pardo. He studied at the Capiz Elementary School and transferred to Ateneo de Manila High School, graduating in 1939. He entered the San José Seminary from 1939 to 1945, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1945; he professed his simple vows in 1947. He studied theology in the United States in 1951, and was ordained a priest by Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1954.

With the Vatican II mandate of localisation of the Mass, Hontiveros began to write liturgical hymns in the 1960s. He wrote his first hymn for services at the Jesuit-administered parish at Barangka, Marikina, with the intent that it could be easily sung and learnt by ordinary Filipinos. This brought about the tradition of Filipino popular hymnody which was later labelled "Jesuit Music".

His more famous hymns include a setting for the Tagalog text of the Gloria, "Papuri sa Diyos", "Magnificat (Ang Puso Ko'y Nagpupuri)", "Maria, Bukang-Liwayway" (lit. "Mary, Dawn"), "Pananagutan" ("Responsibility"), among many others. His works have been published and sung in many parishes in the Philippines and in other countries as well; his "Papuri" has been sung at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. His publisher is the Ateneo-based Jesuit Music Ministry.

Illness and death

Hontiveros suffered a stroke in 1991, affecting his mobility and ability to communicate. On 4 January 2008, he was found lying unconscious in a hallway of the Loyola House of Studies in Quezon City and physicians later determined that he had suffered another stroke. He was pronounced dead on 15 January 2008, and among the attendees at his funeral on 19 January were President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who presented a posthumous award for his work.

• 1976 - Tanglaw ng Lahi Awards (Ateneo de Manila University)
• 1992 - Asian Catholic Publisher’s Outstanding Catholic Author Award
• 2000 - Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice
• 2008 - Presidential Medal of Merit (posthumous)