Felix Y. Manalo
| Felix Ysagun Manalo | |
|---|---|
Manalo on a 2014 stamp of the Philippines
|
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| Religion | Iglesia ni Cristo |
| Other names | Ka Félix |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | Filipino |
| Born | Félix Ysagun Manalo May 10, 1886 Barrio Calzada, Tipas, Taguig, Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines |
| Died | April 12, 1963 (aged 76) Quezon City Philippines |
| Spouse |
Tomasa Sereneo (m. 1910–12) (her death) Honorata de Guzmán (m. 1913–63) |
| Children | Gerardo (died at infancy) Pilar Avelina Dominador Salvador Eraño Bienvenido |
| Parents | Mariano Ysagun Bonifacia Manalo |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | F. Manalo, San Juan City, Philippines |
| Title | Huling Sugo ng Diyos sa mga Hulíng Araw ("The Last Messenger of God in These Last Days") |
| Period in office | July 27, 1914 – April 12, 1963 |
| Successor | Eraño G. Manalo |
Felix Ysagun Manalo (born Félix Ysagun y Manalo, May 10, 1886 – April 12, 1963), also known as Ka Félix, was the first Executive Minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo and incorporated it with the Philippine Government on July 27, 1914. He is the father of Eraño G. Manalo, who succeeded him as Executive Minister of the INC, and the grandfather of Eduardo V. Manalo, the current Executive Minister.
Because there were no precursors to the registered church, external sources and critics of the INC refer to him as its founder. The official doctrine of the Iglesia ni Cristo is that Felix Y. Manalo is the last messenger of God, sent to reestablish the first church founded by Jesus Christ, which the INC claims to have fallen into apostasy following the death of the Apostles.
Felix Y. Manalo was born in Barrio Calzada, Tipas, Taguig, Manila province (transferred to Rizal province in 1901 and now part of Metro Manila), Philippines, on May 10, 1886. He was raised in a rural setting by his devout Catholic parents, Mariano Ysagun and Bonifacia Manalo. With their livelihood based on a combination of agricultural work, shrimp catching and mat making, they were humble people who lived on the edge of poverty. During a childhood disrupted by his father's death, his mother's remarriage and the Philippine Revolution, and an adolescence overshadowed by the Filipino-American War, Manalo received only a few years of formal schooling.
Late in the 1890s, after a telling lapse of faith, the teenage Manalo rejected Catholicism. At the time he resided in Manila with his uncle Father Mariano Borja, a priest assigned to the urban parish of Sampaloc. Severely rebuked for privately studying the Bible, Manalo began forthwith to question many basic Catholic doctrines. He also sought solace in other religious groups. According to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the establishment of the Philippine Independent Church or the Aglipayan Church was his major turning point, but Manalo remained uninterested since its doctrines were mainly Catholic. In 1904, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, entered the Methodist seminary, and became a pastor for a while. He also sought through various denominations, including the Presbyterian Church, Christian Mission, and finally Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1911. There Manalo laboured as trusted evangelist before quarrelling with Adventist leaders over matters of doctrine and customary authority relationships between Westerners and Filipinos. He was left in 1913. Plainly displeased with the various branches of Christianity brought to the Philippines by foreign missionaries, Manalo began to mingle with a diverse crowd of atheists and freethinkers who had rejected organized religion.
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