THE LETRANITE

The ideal of a Letranite is an embodiment of the nobility, generosity and discipline of the Knight of old. It draws its inspiration from God himself. Because of his intimacy with God, even the conduct of the Letranite is manifestly inspired by Him and oriented toward Him.

The Letranite sees in the religious duties of the Christian the means for him to nourish and strengthen the life of God in him. Hence, he fulfills them more out of a sense of need and conviction rather than compulsion and onerous obligation

LOGO

The Colegio’s seal bears the Maltese Cross dating back between 1696 and 1716. The Maltese Cross is the eight point cross of Amalfi, a town in Italy whose merchants founded a hostel for the pilgrims of Jerusalem. The group became the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who transferred to Malta in 1530 and was allowed to stay on condition that they swear allegiance to Emperor Charles V of Spain. They became known as the Knights of Malta from then on and because of their pious works they earned for themselves a place of honor within the Church.

Undoubtedly, Don Juan Geronimo Guerrero, one of the founding fathers of Letran was a Knight of Malta. The silver cross on a blue and red field encircled by the wreath of green laurel represents the pattern of perfection of which all minds that come to Letran are molded. Its silver bespeaks of the purity which must be attained. The blue and red field indicates Letran, the battleground where the vile things are fought against the daunted and where ultimately the consummate ideal of the cross is accomplished. For that ultimate triumph, there is the wreath of green, ever fresh for every victory.

BLUE AND RED COLORS

Blue stands for loyalty and justice. It is the loyalty and justice of the blue-blooded, a loyalty of noblest form and a sense of justice which grasps fully well the order of values. Red is for consummate bravery— that firmness of heart, that staunchness of will, that openness of mind. It stands for the firmness of a martyr who welcomes the heathen’s sword across his neck and a hero who saves countless lives as the price of his own.

The colors of Letran are blue and red, not red and blue. For consummate bravery asks for consummate cause. The martyr marches firmly towards the scaffold only in complete faithfulness to his creed, and the hero offers his whole life only in such whole offertory does justice to a sublime cause. Bravery simply for the exquisiteness of spilled blood, which ends in supreme sacrifice for a trivial or for no account, is not Letran’s.