Elena Granada Maquiso

Elena Granada Maquiso was a Filipino Christian educator, church musician, hymn writer, composer and arranger, cultural researcher, and teacher whose work helped establish a distinctly Philippine voice in modern congregational song. Born in Bohol on July 9, 1914, she studied at Silliman University in Dumaguete and later pursued advanced theological and church-music studies in the United States, including work at Union Theological Seminary and Hartford Theological Foundation, where she completed a doctorate in religious education.

From the early 1950s, Maquiso taught church music and Christian education at Silliman University and served in several educational and administrative roles. Her ministry was closely connected with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. She championed worship rooted in Philippine languages, folk traditions, and indigenous cultural forms rather than relying exclusively on imported Western models.

Maquiso composed, adapted, and collected many hymns and tunes and later edited the influential Cebuano hymnal Alawiton sa Pagtoo. Several of her melodies entered international ecumenical hymnody through the E.A.C.C. Hymnal of 1963, including HALAD, PURITA, BILAAN, MAGDALENA, and REMEGIA. Research on HALAD indicates that Maquiso adapted its melody from an older Philippine folk source for a Cebuano offertory text in 1961. Her work remains important to Philippine hymnody, Asian church music, and the wider movement to indigenize Christian worship. She died in Dumaguete on June 17, 1995.