Revision as of 05:05, May 18, 2007 by Filipino (talk | contribs) (→‎The beginnings of Christianity in the Philippines: -removed "and were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism, due to the Inquisition." this is a totally unsported claim. Please cite reference.)
The first recorded Orthodox Christians came during the 18th and 19th centuries due to trade; they were mostly Antiochians who later married Filipino women. After fighting a bloody revolution against Spain, the Philippines then fought another war for its independence against the United States. However, the Philippines was annexed by the United States in 1898 and remained a colony until 1946. Religious tolerance was then instituted, and the Spanish Inquisition was abolished in 1898. The new American governor-generals then encouraged the spread of the Episcopal Church through government donations of land.
Orthodoxy arrived in the Philippines during the American colonial regime due to the influx of Russian emigrees fleeing the Soviet regime. In 1935, a large Russian parish was established in Manila, and the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia appointed Father Mikhail Yerokhin as vicar. The Episcopal Church then permitted Fr. Mikhail to use the north transept of their cathedral for worship. In 1937, the first Orthodox cathedral was built and was named after the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God. This also became the first Orthodox altar in the Philippines. Later, both the Episcopal and Russian Orthodox cathedrals were destroyed during the Second World War.
In 1949, 5,500 Russian Orthodox from China, including then-Archbishop John Maximovitch, was relocated to Tubabao in the south central Philippines by the International Refugee Organization and with the permission of the newly independent Republic of the Philippines. Abp. John Maximovitch then established a wooden church, orphanage, and other buildings in Tubabao for the refugees. Until the present time, older Filipinos still remember the holy man, and he is revered even by non-Orthodox in the south central Philippines.