Biography of Bro. Felix Manalo

God's Last messenger

Bro. Felix Y. Manalo was born in Barrio Calzada, Taguig, in Rizal province, southern Luzon, in the Philippines on May 10, 1886—at a time when the country was yet in the clutches of Spanish colonialism and when Roman Catholicism was still considered the state religion. He was raised in the catholic faith by his parents, Mariano Ysagun and Bonifacio Manalo. (It was sometime after his mother’s death that he decided on his mother’s name over his father’s name. He grieved over the death of his mother for whom he had a great affection. Thus for sentimental reasons and for expressing his reverence, he adopted her name, Manalo.) He began acquiring his education from barrio school under the tutelage of a “maestrong Cario” (a teacher called Cario).

He worked as herd boy, was later apprenticed to his uncle in the latter’s photography studio and sometime in 1904, opened a hat shop in Paranaque, Rizal. By then, the Spanish conquistadores had already yielded the Islands to the Americans and the Roman Catholic Church was then beginning to be challenged by different Protestant sects which the Americans brought with them.

Bro. Felix Manalo began to entertain his first doubt in the Catholic teachings when, sometime in 1904, he witnessed a public debate between a Catholic priest and a Protestant pastor in Paranaque, Rizal. The Protestant pastor evidently prevailed and gained Bro. Manalo’s profound interest.

Not knowing that his life had a singular pattern designed by God for him to follow, as were the lives of God’s messengers before him, namely Moses and Apostle Paul, he drifted another from one religion to another. That year, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and attended classes given by that sect in the Methodist Theological Seminary wherein he eventually became an evangelist.

Thus began a seemingly endless search for the true religion—a search that led Bro. Manalo to join one Protestant sect after another—scrutinizing every doctrine and comparing them with the biblical percepts. In 1907, he joined the Presbyterian Church wherein he became a pastor after attending the Union Theological Seminary.

The manner of baptizing by immersion by the Christian Mission attracted Bro. Manalo’s attention and, in 1910, he joined the missionaries and later became an evangelist. He married Tomasa Sereneo of Paco, Manila who died soon after giving birth to their son, Gerardo.

In 1911, he joined the Seventh day Adventists wherein he also became a pastor. Then Bro. Manalo remarried. His second wife was Honorata de Guzman of Sta. Cruz, Manila. The couple were both active in the Church’s activities, Bro. Felix Manalo as a minister and Sister Honorata, a deaconess. But then, after pondering on the Adventist’s persistent observance of Sabbath, Bro. Manalo found it unscriptural. He abandoned the Adventist Church and returned to his hat shop.

Dissatisfied with the doctrines and practices of the then existing religions, Bro. Manalo severed himself from all of them. Then he transferred his business and domicile to Pasay City and also opened a barber shop. Although he was frequently visited by his former colleagues in the Adventist Church who tried to bring him back to the fold, Bro. Manalo did not waver.

He totally lost faith in the established religions. He began to associate himself with atheist and free-thinkers obviously to examine their conviction which he found false and irrational, too. He found out that wrong interpretations of the bible caused both the atheist’s disbelief and the diversity of the doctrines of different religions.

In search for the truth, Bro. Manalo resolved to undertake a thorough examination of the doctrines of the different religions. That was in 1913. He closeted himself in his room, and, to the utter apprehension of his wife, did not emerge until two days and three nights later, within which period he painstakingly assayed the different tenets of the teachings of the bible. And that which was vague and obscure to him became crystal clear.

He gained the insight that religion or man’s ways back to God must be fully in accordance with the will of God contained in the bible, and that he was being sent to preach and the true religion so that God may bring near his righteousness to men in these last days.

Stimulated by Apostle James’ admonition in his epistle (James 4:17) that “… to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin,” Bro. Manalo decided to preach Gospel. This was the mission which he carried out through thick and thin until he died on April 12, 1963, full of years and fruitful achievements.

In an early month of 1914, Bro. Felix Manalo left his wife, Honorata, for Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila to begin preaching about the Church of Christ (Iglesia ni Cristo). There he started with four or five listeners in a small room at the workers’ quarters of Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Company of Manila, Incorporated. As the listeners began to grow in number the nightly religious meetings moved out in the open. Soon, the first converts were baptized in the nearby Pasig River. They formed the first locale congregation of the Iglesia ni Cristo in the Philippines.

A few months later, the church in Punta gained more converts and Bro. Manalo decided to propagate the church in other places. He left the small congregation in the care of Bro. Federico Inocencio, one of the converts, and Bro. Atanacio Morte, the head deacon. He headed for Tipas with his wife and infant daughter, Pilar, to bring the mission of salvation to his town mates.

In his hometown, he met stiff persecutions. His town mates could hardly believe that so familiar a figure as he could bring no less than the message of salvation to them. They derided him. Yet some of the more determined detractors were later converted. Among these were Justino Cassanova, pastor of the Christian and Missionary alliance and Norbeto Asuncion who became ministers of the Iglesia ni Cristo.

On July 27, 1914 the Iglesia ni Cristo was officially registerd with the Philippine government. Thus the prophetic revelation contained in the bible was fulfilled.

After the rainy month, the Church’s work of propagation was launched in the town of Pateros and then in the town of Pasig. It was an exacting task and soon Bro. Manalo began to lose weight but with sheer determination he nursed himself back to health.

The propagation of the Church began in Tondo, Manila in the closing months of 1915. It began in the house of Bro. Quintin Rivera as a modest start and blossomed into full-scale religious rallies from one vacant lot to another, attracting both sympathizers and critics alike.

Bro. Manalo met various oppositions and persecutions from entrenched religious establishments such as the Catholic and Protestant forces. But he remained undaunted. The church’s followers multiplied. And so rose the need for ministers.

Bro. Manalo conducted Bible classes for the ministry. Soon some student members were ordained on whose assistance Bro. Manalo could now depend in looking after the spiritual needs of the growing church.

Trusted ministers were assigned to pioneer in the work of propagating the faith in the areas surrounding Manila. The church branched out to the provinces in Central Luzon. As early as 1924, the Iglesia ni Cristo had as many as 45 locale congregations. In 1937, the church began propagating in the Visayas when Bro. Manalo sent Bro. Apilio Apolonio to pioneer in preaching the church in Cebu, whence it hopped from one Visayan Island to another. Before the Second World war broke out, the church had gone as far north as Ilocos Norte and as far south as Cotabato in the Island of Mindanao.

In Feb. 1939, the first issue of Pasugo came out. The tagalong magazine aimed to disseminate the doctrines of the Church. Publication of this monthly periodical temporarily stopped during the war years and reappeared in Jan. 1951.

During the wartime period, when the Japanese Imperial Army occupied the Philippines, the mission of salvation continued in spite of the reign bombs and threats. While other religious groups compromised, out of fear, with the Japanese and succumbed to the machinations of the enemy, the Iglesia ni Cristo continued to hold worship services, continued to hold missionary campaigns and continued to minister to the spiritual needs of the brethren. Under stress and pressure, the ministerial force led by Bro. Felix Manalo persisted in propagating the truth and overseeing the need of the brethren. The Iglesia ni Cristo was not hindered from flourishing even during the perilous times of the second world war.

While the other religions failed miserably in their task of propagation, the Iglesia ni Cristo gained thousands of converts. And so after the war makeshift houses of worship in almost all locales could not hold the congregation anymore.

In 1948 the church began constructing a concrete house of worship in Washington street, Sampaloc, Manila. It was the beginning of pious undertaking; the resurgence of big houses of worship that became landmarks through the breadth and length of the archipelago. It was far from the expectation of many people because of the majority of the church members are numbered among poor. Because of its force, this church has gained the respect even of those who disagree with it in many things. They could not help but recognize the right and authority of this church because of its complete unity not only in doctrine but also in all its endeavors.

When God willed that Bro. Felix Manalo should rest after almost fifty years as leader of the church of Christ, Bro. Erano Manalo (the fifth of Bro. Felix’s six children) took over. The church remained strong and united. There has been a steady increase in membership as well as in the number of chapels built. Locale congregations of the Church have been established abroad, as in the mainland of the United States of America, in Canada, England, Germany, Hawaii, Guam, and Hongkong.

God promised that when the Church of Christ shall have been glorified in the east, there would arise people in the west who shall be made members of this church: “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising sun…” (Is. 59:19) If the mission of salvation transcended the international dateline, this is in fulfillment of God’s will.

Indeed, the Church of Christ will continue to march towards a certain degree of progress which God has designed for her, and if her posture and stature has caught the attention of the world, God wants this to be known by all: “That men may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy one of Israel has created it.” (Is. 41:20)

(Pasugo july-august 1979 issue)