Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago

Early years

Rodríguez was born in 1918,^[1] in Caguas, Puerto Rico, the son of Manuel Baudelio Rodriguez Rodriguez and Herminia Santiago Esteras, both from large, Catholic families. He was baptized at the nearby Sweet Name of Jesus Church (now the cathedral of the region) on May 4, 1919. Rodríguez was the second of five brothers and sisters. Two of his sisters married, while another became a Carmelite nun. His brother, José (Pepe) Rodriguez became a Benedictine monk and the first Puerto Rican to become abbot of his monastery.^[2]

In 1925, fire destroyed the family residence and business and they were forced to live with his mother's parents. That same year, Rodríguez was enrolled to study at the Colegio Católico Notre Dame, attached to the parish church. After graduating the Catholic elementary school, he began to attend José Gautier Benítez High School. His desire to become a priest was undermined by ill health.^[3] At that point, he began to develop ulcerative colitis. After two years at the local public high school, he transferred to the Academy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in San Juan. His medical problems, however, caused him to leave prior to graduation. He returned to the family home and continued his high school studies as best he could, while working as a clerk, finally receiving his diploma in May 1939.^[2]

Pastoral life

While Rodríguez was working as an office clerk in various towns of the region, he dedicated his resources to promote a greater knowledge of the Catholic faith by promoting a greater understanding of the Catholic liturgy. Using articles on liturgical subjects which he himself had translated and edited, he began publishing Liturgy and Christian Culture, publications to which he dedicated innumerable hours. Rodríguez organized discussion groups in towns across the entire island, and worked with Catholic social organizations to disseminate his ideas. He also taught catechism to high school students whose study aids he supplied out of his own pocket.^[3]

In 1946 Rodríguez enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, to pursue higher studies, where his brother José and sister Haydée were already UPR faculty members. As his disciples grew in number he moved into nearby Catholic University Center and organized another Liturgy Circle (later called the Círculo de Cultura Cristiana). Despite excellent grades and his love for studies, however, illness prevented him from completing his second year. Nonetheless, he was a voracious reader and, with only a year's study, was able to master both the piano and the church organ. In 1948, he assembled along with Father McGlone, the parroquial chorus "Te Deum Laudamus".^[2]

Rodríguez zealously promoted a renewal of the Catholic liturgy among bishops, clergy and laymen. He professed extreme devotion to the liturgy and worked to repair the loss of liturgical customs that had been abandoned over generations. He advocated for active participation of the laity in prayer, the use of the vernacular and – most especially – the observance of his much loved Paschal Vigil in its proper nighttime setting, after centuries of having this service celebrated on the morning of Holy Saturday. Increasingly convinced that “the liturgy is the life of the Church", he organized a "Liturgy Circle" in Caguas to foment a better knowledge among the people. He expressed special concern over the Easter vigil, saying that it had lost its ancient character as the focal night of the Christian year. To his delight, the Easter vigil was restored to its proper time near midnight by Pope Pius XII in 1952. One of his favorite sayings about this feast was Vivimos para esa noche (We live for that night). This is now the motto on his tomb, which is located in the Cathedral of Caguas.^[2]

Death

His physical strength declined gradually. He lived each moment quietly overcoming his pain with the profound joy of one who knows himself to be resurrected. Following an aggressive life saving surgery in 1963 he turned out to have advanced terminal rectal cancer.^[2]

Rodríguez died at the age of 44 of colorectal cancer on July 13, 1963. Near the end, he experienced the “dark night of faith”, thinking himself abandoned by God, a known mystical experience. Yet, before dying, he rediscovered the Word he had lost, and which had given sense to his entire life. “The 13th is a good day,” he had said a few days before his death, without anyone having a notion of what that meant, until that day.^[2]