33 Facts About Gregorio Aglipay

Contrary to popular belief, Gregorio Aglipay did not join the IFI until one month from its proclamation by de los Reyes and the Union Obrera Democratica.

Gregorio 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.

Gregorio Aglipay joined Freemasonry in May 1918, a society excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.

Gregorio Aglipay married Pilar Jamias y Ver from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte in 1939 and then died one year later.

Gregorio Aglipay was the third child of Pedro Aglipay y Cruz and Victoriana Labayan y Hilario and became an orphan at a young age who grew up in the care of relatives at the tobacco fields in the last volatile decades of the Spanish occupation in the Philippines.

Gregorio Aglipay bore deep grievances against the colonial Spanish government of the islands, stemming from abuses within the agricultural system.

Gregorio 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.

Gregorio Aglipay 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.

Gregorio Aglipay 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.

Gregorio 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.

Gregorio Aglipay 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.

Gregorio Aglipay then organized the said revolutionists and called their group Liwanag, a local auxiliary of the Katipunan based in Victoria, Tarlac.

Aguinaldo convinced Gregorio Aglipay, who appointed him as military chaplain of the revolutionary government sometime in May or June 1898, the first ever to be appointed as such in the Philippine Revolution.

Gregorio Aglipay later became a member of the Malolos Congress, the lone member coming from the religious sector, although he represented his home province of Ilocos Norte, as well.

Gregorio 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.

When Gregorio Aglipay returned to Manila and discovered that the Americans had attacked, he joined the revolution.

Gregorio Aglipay was summoned to Manila by Manila Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda but did not appear, which resulted in Nozaleda excommunicating Gregorio 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.

Gregorio Aglipay was one of the last generals to surrender to the Americans.

Gregorio Aglipay would have sign a document of confession to the Roman Catholic Church but on condition of assurance that by signing the document, the issues of the native Filipino Catholic priests would be solved, and that the Filipino clergy would be appointed to the posts formerly held by the Spanish regulars.

Subsequently, Gregorio Aglipay reputedly walked out from the meeting and threw away the document.

Gregorio Aglipay celebrated his first mass as the de facto Supreme Bishop on October 26,1902.

On January 18,1903, Gregorio 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.

Gregorio Aglipay was awarded Doctor of Divinity by the Meadville Theological School in Chicago, Illinois in 1931.

In May 1918, Gregorio Aglipay obliged and was inducted at Magdalo Lodge 31 in Cavite.

In 1925, Gregorio Aglipay rose to the 32nd degree, one degree short of the highest Masonic rank.

Gregorio 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.

Gregorio Aglipay 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, but both lost to Manuel L Quezon and Sergio Osmena of the Nacionalista Party, respectively.

Gregorio Aglipay was the first ever religious leader to run for presidency in the history of the Philippines.

Gregorio Aglipay sent a congratulatory message to Quezon three days after the election when the results became apparent and quickly accepted defeat.

Gregorio Aglipay and Jamias begot a daughter twenty six years before their marriage, named Liwliwa, born on February 24,1913.

Gregorio Aglipay served as Philippine secretary of the Rationalist Society of London and secretary to Aglipay in translating English letters for his contacts abroad.

Gregorio Aglipay's remains are interred at the Cathedral of Saint Mary, Aglipay National Shrine in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Gregorio 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.