Epifanio de los Santos

Epifanio de los Santos y Cristbal, sometimes known as Don Paong or Don Panyong was a noted Filipino historian, literary critic, art critic, jurist, prosecutor, antiquarian, archivist, scholar, painter, poet, musician, musicologist, philosopher, philologist, bibliographer, translator, journalist, editor, publisher, paleographer, ethnographer, biographer, researcher, civil servant, patriot and hero. He was appointed Director of the Philippine Library and Museum by Governor General Leonard Wood in 1925.

Epifanio de los Santos was born in 1871 in Malabon, Manila to Escolastico de los Santos of Nueva Ecija and musician Antonina Cristbal y Tongco. He studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he obtained a summa cum laude of Bachelor of Arts degree. He devoted some time for painting but music became part of his daily life and was even awarded a professorship in music. He finished his law studies in University of Santo Tomas and topped the bar exams in 1898. Rafael Palma noticed that during his college years his collecting instinct was early manifested when he curiously dedicated himself gathering plants and flowers in the Nueva Ecija wherein he also sought the company and even communed with the rural communities. According to Agoncillo, nobody suspected that he would someday become a literary man. As a young law student, his fascination in the study of Spanish literature was through readings of Juan Valeras novel entitled Pepita Jimenez and most of all his available works. Eventua

Source: Wikipedia