The Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa is a national award of the Republic of Panama given to distinguished Panamanians in science, arts and letters, and to foreign nationals whom the government considers worthy of such distinction. It is normally awarded to individuals and not to institutions, and therefore it is especially significant for the Panamanian Foreign Ministry to give to the Order the possibility of receiving this posthumous award in behalf of Father Bernardino Garcia. According to some religious of the Order in Panama, aside from bestowing such award to this Recollect friar who had dedicated his life to Panama, the state would also give recognition proper to the Order, which has at present some ten communities there. And among them, the Colegio San Agustín in the capital of Panama and the mission territory of Bocas del Toro stand out. Moreover, two of the eight dioceses in the country have Augustinian Recollect bishops, namely: José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, bishop of David, and Anibal Saldana Santamaría, prelate of Bocas del Toro. Another Augustinian Recollect, Jose Agustin Ganuza Garcia, is prelate emeritus of Bocas.
On the occasion of the fourth centenary of the Augustinian Recollect presence in Panama, the Order has organized various activities, culminating last October in the meeting of the Prior General, priors provincial and vicars of the Americas, and in the Historical Congress on the presence of the Augustinian Recollects in Panama.
Bernardino García
Last October 5, in the Padre Benjamin Ayechu Hall of the Catholic University of Santa María la Antigua (USMA), Angel Cuesta, an Augustinian Recollect historian, opened the Historical Congress with his talk, “The Augustinian Recollects in Panama during the last century: 1898-2012.” The papal nuncio in Panama, Andres Carrascosa, the Prior General of the Order, Miguel Miró, the Prior Provincial, Manuel Beaumont, and the administrators of the University were among those present in the Historical Congress.
The name, Fray Bernardino Garcia, emerged remarkably in the history of the Augustinian Recollects in Panama. He was the one who kept float, when religious and laypersons were dying of yellow fever, during the construction of the French Canal. Everyone was leaving the place, but Fray Bernardino saw a strategic place in Panama and thus he stayed. He was the chaplain of the army and attended to the death of General Carlos Alban. He was also able to assist and accompany the native leader and national hero, Victoriano Lorenzo in his last few hours. When Panama separated from Colombia, it was Fray Bernardino who blessed the new flag, and then for seven years, he held important national posts in the field of health and education. Finally, in 1937, he died a sudden death at the Panamanian embassy in Madrid.
Martinez Cuesta closed his talk, mentioning the two Recollect projects that had national bearing in Panama: the building of the Colegio San Agustín, still being run by the friars, and the founding of the Catholic University of Santa María la Antigua. And from these academic institutions came distinguished politicians, businessmen, parents, writers, priests, religious men and women.