12 May 2015 - Fr. Rene Javellana, SJ, art historian and Associate Professor of the Fine Arts Department of the Ateneo de Manila University and Jesuit Archivist, traveled to the Czech Republic in late April for his exploratory research on the history of the Czech Jesuits and travelers to the Philippines. In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Ambassador Vic Lecaros said that Fr. Javellana specifically looked into the work of Georg Kamel, SJ (1661-1706), Paul Klein, SJ (1652-1777) and Tadeo Haenke (1761-1817).
Under the patronage of the National Museum of the Philippines for its project in constructing the new Museum of Natural History, which is expected to include exhibits related to the Czechs, Fr. Javellana’s visit received the full support and cooperation of the Philippine Embassy in Prague, the Czech Embassy in Manila and the Philippine Consulate-General in Brno, Czech Republic.
Fr. Javellana had just come from the British Museum Archives in London, United Kingdom and the University of Leuven in Beligum where he saw the original work of Kamel, a Jesuit missionary in the Philippines in the late 17th century and who was the first to document Philippine flora and fauna.
His trip to the Czech Republic included visits and meetings with the Directors of the Ibero-American Department of the Charles University to discuss academic cooperation, the Haenke Collection at the Czech National Museum to see the works of Tadeo Haenke, a Czech geographer and explorer who collected thousands of plants from the Philippines during the Malaspina expedition and whose collection was acquired by the Czech National Museum in 1821.
Fr. Javellana also visited the city of Litomerice to see the Rizaliana collection and to join the Rizal Heritage Trail prepared by the Philippine Embassy. He also met with Mayor Vladislav Chlupac, who is a member of the Knights of Rizal.
Throughout his stay, Fr. Javellana was assisted by Embassy First Secretary and Consul Juan E. Dayang, Jr. and Honorary Consul General Bretislav Skacel. They went to the Research Library in Olomouc to see the original 1744 Philippine map of Spanish Jesuit Pedro Murillo Velarde and Paul Klein’s book Remedios Faciles (Simple Remedies for Various Diseases). Also referred to as Pablo Clain, he wrote an early draft of a Tagalog dictionary. In the afternoon, the delegation visited the Tomas Bat’a University Zlin and the Bat’a Museum.
They likewise visited the Moravian Archives in Brno which has the baptismal registry of Kamel and the Spilberk Castle to see the Baroque Pharmacy at the Museum.
At the conclusion of his itinerary in the Czech Republic, Fr. Javellana then flew to Rome to explore the Roman Jesuit Archives and to see Kamel’s hand-written final vows as a Jesuit.
The Philippine Embassy will continue its cooperation with the Czech Embassy in Manila to coordinate joint cultural and historic projects to further deepen Philippine-Czech relations and to promote enhanced cooperation with historic, cultural, and educational institutions in the Czech Republic and their counterparts in the Philippines. END