Gregorio Aglipay Cruz y Labayán (; Filipino: Gregorio Labayan Aglipay Cruz; pronounced ; May 5, 1860 – September 1, 1940) was a Filipino former Roman Catholic priest and revolutionary during the Philippine Revolution and Philippine–American War who became the first head and leader of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), the first-ever wholly Filipino-led independent Christian Church in the Philippines in the form of a nationalist church.

Known for inciting patriotic rebellion among the Filipino clergy during the Philippine Revolution and Philippine–American War, he was also a political activist who became acquainted with writer and labor leader Isabelo de los Reyes who would then start an independent Christian Filipino Church colloquially named after Aglipay in 1902 as a revolt against the Roman Catholic Church, which was the state religion of the Philippines at the time, due to the mistreatment of the Spanish friars towards the Filipinos. Contrary to popular belief, Aglipay did not join the IFI until one month from its proclamation by de los Reyes and the Unión Obrera Democrática.

Aglipay was previously excommunicated by Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda y Villa of Manila in May 1899, upon the expressed permission of Pope Leo XIII, due to his involvement in revolutionary activities, despite his prior intercession and defense of some of the Spanish Roman Catholic clergy from liberal-nationalist Filipino revolutionaries. The Roman Catholic Church made attempts to bring Aglipay back to their fold, but failed. Aglipay joined Freemasonry in May 1918, a society excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. Aglipay married Pilar Jamias y Ver from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte in 1939 and then died one year later. Followers of Aglipay through the Church are sometimes colloquially referred to by their membership as Aglipayans.

Early life, studies and priesthood

thumb|175px|left|[[Historical markers of the Philippines|Historical marker at Batac, Ilocos Norte, the birthplace of Aglipay]]

Born in Batac, Ilocos Norte on May 5 and baptized on May 9, 1860, in the Roman Catholic Church, Aglipay personally preferred May 8 as the celebration for his date of birth.

After two years of study under Carpio, Aglipay continued his studies at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in 1878 for his third year as a working student, and later at the University of Santo Tomas in 1880 for his fourth year wherein he was an academic topnotcher. During his time in Santo Tomas, Aglipay met José Rizal, a senior medical student who used to be his fencing partner, and a newly transferred Isabelo de los Reyes who also came from Letran. Aglipay obtained his pre-law Bachelor of Arts degree at Santo Tomas in 1881 and subsequently enrolled in law and theology in 1882, still at Santo Tomas. He then discontinued his law and theology studies at Santo Tomas and entered the Roman Catholic seminary in Vigan, Ilocos Sur in 1883 at age 23, as previously influenced by Rizal. He was ordained to the priesthood six years later on December 21, 1889, on the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, at the old Dominican Church in Intramuros, Manila and celebrated his first mass as an ordained Roman Catholic priest on January 1, 1890, at Santa Cruz Church, Manila.

Aglipay then began a career as an assistant priest to Spanish friars in various parishes around the main northern island of Luzon, notably in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia. He later dropped Cruz in his surname and while serving in Victoria, Tarlac, Aglipay discreetly gave aid to the revolutionaries and employed thirty carpenters who in reality were revolutionists in touch with the Katipunan group. Aglipay then organized the said revolutionists and called their group Liwanag ("Light"), a local auxiliary of the Katipunan based in Victoria, Tarlac.

Philippine Revolution

In 1896, a secret society, Katipunan, led by the Supremo, Andrés Bonifacio, was discovered by Spanish authorities. With Roman Catholicism as the state religion, Manila Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda tasked Aglipay to confront the revolutionary leaders, offering them a level of autonomy in the future for the Philippines if they would end the rebellion. General Emilio Aguinaldo, in turn, sent Colonel Luciano San Miguel to Aglipay with the intention of getting him to join the rebellion. Aguinaldo convinced Aglipay, who appointed him as military chaplain (capellán castrense) of the revolutionary government sometime in May or June 1898, the first ever to be appointed as such in the Philippine Revolution.

thumb|upright|175px|left|Aglipay (third from right, back row) together with some of the other delegates to the first Assembly of Representatives of the [[Malolos Congress, taken in 1929 at the Barasoain Church, 30 years after the Malolos Constitution was ratified.]]

Aglipay also later became a member of the Malolos Congress, the lone member coming from the religious sector, although he also represented his home province of Ilocos Norte, as well. On October 20, 1898, Aguinaldo elevated Aglipay to the post of Military Vicar General (Vicario General Castrense) of the revolutionaries, a position that made him head of all military chaplains in the revolution. In the course of Aglipay's journey to the north, the Philippine–American War started at the conclusion of the Spanish–American War. Aglipay interpreted his appointment as Vicar General as making him Ecclesiastical Superior to all native Filipino priests, who as such should all be appointed military chaplains for the duration of the war.

Philippine–American War

thumb|upright|125px|right|Then-[[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila#List of Archbishops of Manila|Manila Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda y Villa, who served from 1889 to 1902, excommunicated Aglipay upon the expressed permission of the pope due to his involvement in revolutionary activities at the height of the Philippine–American War.]]

When Aglipay returned to Manila and discovered that the Americans had attacked, he joined the revolution. The fighting that broke out between the U.S. and Filipino forces on February 4, 1899, prompted Aglipay to withdraw to Ilocos Norte to organize an armed resistance and was given the rank of lieutenant-general. He eventually formed the guerrilla group "Sandataan". Aglipay was summoned to Manila by Manila Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda but did not appear, which resulted in Nozaleda excommunicating Aglipay on April 29, 1899, for "usurpation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction" upon the expressed permission of Pope Leo XIII, and the sentence of excommunication was exposed from May 4 to June 5 in the archiepiscopal tribunal of Manila.

Aglipay was one of the last generals to surrender to the Americans. Realizing the futility of the cause for which they had been fighting, on April 28, 1901, a month after the capture of Aguinaldo, he surrendered to Captain Edward Mann Lewis of the 20th U.S. Regular Infantry in Laoag, to prevent further casualties from his men as he saw less chances of winning from the much dominant American troops. After his surrender, he later moved back to the already-American-occupied Manila and worked at a reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church. The Americans officially ended the war on July 2, 1902, and granted full amnesty to all persons in the Philippines who had participated in the conflict.

After the war

thumb|150px|Aglipay circa 1905

thumb|upright|150px|Undated photo of Aglipay (center, seated), together with two unnamed IFI priests

Following the end of the war in 1902, writer-activist Isabelo de los Reyes was working towards the formation of a nationalist church that is independent of Rome. Spanish friars were still in control of the parishes all throughout the country at the time of the American occupation. On August 3, de los Reyes and his labor group Unión Obrera Democrática proclaimed the establishment of the church and suggested in absentia that Aglipay be its first head bishop. Aglipay, a devout Catholic at the time even after he had been excommunicated, was reluctant as he was initially against a schism, but eventually accepted de los Reyes' offer to head an independent church on September 6, 1902, and was appointed as the first Supreme Bishop or Obispo Máximo of the "Philippine Independent Church" (officially Iglesia Filipina Independiente, abbreviated as IFI and also referred as the "Aglipayan Church" after him). The church retained many of the Roman Catholic forms of worship.

Aglipay celebrated his first mass as the de facto Supreme Bishop on October 26, 1902. On January 18, 1903, Aglipay was consecrated to the position of Supreme Bishop, held in Manila, by the IFI Church's then-Bishops of Isabela, Cagayan, Pangasinan, Abra, Nueva Ecija, Cavite, and Manila. As Supreme Bishop, he allied himself with the nationalist and most radical political parties during his time, like the Sakdalistas, and later on, even with the Socialist and Communist parties. and its English translation, "Novenary of the Motherland", 1926. Aglipay eventually became honorary vice president of the American Unitarian Association.

Aglipay was awarded Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) by the Meadville Theological School in Chicago, Illinois in 1931.

Later life and legacy

thumb|upright|left|200px|Aglipay as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the [[1935 Philippine presidential election, with his running mate Norberto Nabong.]]

thumb|150px|Portrait of Aglipay at the [[Iglesia Filipina Independiente Parish of St. John the Baptist in Taguig City]]

Despite being a Christian leader, Aglipay, like other Filipino revolutionaries, later joined Freemasonry. Spanish Masonic Grand Master Miguel Morayta personally pushed Aglipay to Freemasonry. In May 1918, Aglipay obliged and was inducted at Magdalo Lodge 31 in Cavite. In 1925, Aglipay rose to the 32nd degree, one degree short of the highest Masonic rank.

Aglipay ran for elections in 1935 as President of the Commonwealth under the Republican Party, the first nationwide at-large election ever held in the Philippines (per the Tydings–McDuffie Act). He was the last presidential candidate to announce his candidacy, along with Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas' candidate Norberto Nabong as his running mate in a joint Republican-Communist Party ticket,

Aglipay was on trial calendars in The Episcopal Church's calendar of saints in the years 2009 and 2015 but the aforementioned calendars were never made official and his feast is not part of current proposals.

The City of Batac, Ilocos Norte annually celebrates the 1st day of September as a special non-working holiday to commemorate the death anniversary of Aglipay, known as the "Gregorio L. Aglipay Day", which was enacted on February 10, 1989, as per Republic Act No. 6701.

References

Sources

  • Halili, Christine N. (2004) Philippine History, pp 192–93. .
  • Correspondence of Supreme Bishop Gregorio Aglipay (1902-1905)
  • The historical records of Archbishop Gregorio Aglipay of the Independent Church of the Philippines are in the Harvard Divinity School Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.