Nicolas Zamora was born on September 10, 1875 from a middle-class family in Binondo, Manila. His parents were Don Paulino Zamora, a sea merchant, and Epifania Villegas, who died while he was still young. His father’s uncle was the martyred Filipino priest, Jacinto Zamora, who along with two other priests had been executed in 1872 after being falsely implicated by Spanish friars of participating in the failed Cavite mutiny that year. Such bitter experience formed a basis for Paulino’s disaffection against the Spanish regime and the Roman Catholic Church. He joined the brotherhood of Masons in 1891, from which he was elected third vice president of its Regional Grand Council in 1893, and Dr. Jose Rizal’s reform movement, La Liga Filipina in 1892. On a trajectory towards Protestantism, Paulino purchased a Spanish Bible from a ship captain on the way to Hong Kong in 1896 which he diligently studied and shared with his family. When it was no longer safe for him to continue Bible studies at their home in Intramuros, he decided to move his family to Bulacan, Bulacan and there began underground evangelistic activities, which won him a few followers. At the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896, he was imprisoned in Manila for his activities at the instigation of the friars in Bulacan. He was later exiled in Chefarina, an island in the Mediterranean, after a mock trial. He later reunited with his family in the Philippines after Masons in Spain and Manila were able to secure his release right after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in December 1898.²³

While his father was in exile, Nicolas Zamora was sent by his uncle, Fr. Pablo Zamora to Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he completed his Bachelor of Arts. He later enrolled at the Roman Catholic College of Santo Tomas in Manila for a master’s degree in preparation for the priesthood. Nevertheless, the outbreak of the revolution in August 1896 cut short his schooling. He joined the revolutionary forces under Lt. Col. Gregorio del Pilar with the rank of Teniente Mayor (Lieutenant Major) and saw action in some of the battles in the provinces of Bulacan and Rizal.²⁴ Just like his father, he too studied the Bible in secret and thus, became a convinced Protestant.²⁵ At his father’s return from exile, and at a time of religious freedom, both of them welcomed the coming of Protestantism in the country, eagerly participating in both the activities of the Methodists and the Presbyterians. When Bishop Thoburn preached at the Filipino Theatre on March 5, 1899, both father and son were present. They also opened their home for religious services under the auspices of Dr. James B. Rodgers of the Presbyterian Mission a few days after his arrival in April, 1899. More than a month later, when the Methodists’ Soldier’s and Sailor’s Institute opened regular services for Filipinos, they were also among its regular attendees. In October 22, 1899, Nicolas, his father, three of his siblings and four others became the first Filipinos to be baptized into the Presbyterian Church.²⁶

Though baptized a Presbyterian, Nicolas Zamora opted to join the Methodists. After all, it was the Methodists who discovered and utilized his preaching abilities in the first place. Prautch appointed him to lead the Filipino work at the Institute and in several places in and around Manila. Zamora was indeed an unexpected development. When Thoburn, together with Warne, arrived in March 6, 1900 for his second visit, he found the work he inaugurated a year earlier to have made surprising gains especially among the Filipinos. Zamora was already holding services in seven different stations, with an average attendance of about six hundred per week. To further describe the impact of Zamora’s ministry, Warne reported what he witnessed during the same visit:

In a village adjoining Manila [Malibay] Nicholas [sic] was invited to preach in a large house, which, with the use of a piano, is given free. The presidente (mayor) and vice presidente and nearly all the village officials attend, and the congregation averages about two hundred. In another part of the city a small native house was opened for preaching, but it was soon found to be too small. The congregation adjourned to the courtyard, and two hundred others hear the gospel from his lips.²⁷

Signifying his satisfaction over Zamora’s work, Thoburn moved to ordain him as deacon. The same evening of his arrival, in what he recalled a “prolonged and somewhat tedious” meeting with the small band of workers – the Prautch couple, Goodrich, Warne, the four WFMS missionaries, and five Filipinos at the Soldier’s Institute, they accomplished a couple of things.²⁸ They formally organized the Manila Quarterly Conference, licensed Zamora as local preacher, and after a long discussion decided to have him ordained through special arrangement with the Southwest Kansas Annual Conference which was in session at that time. Through Secretary Leonard via cablegram, Thoburn requested that Zamora be accepted as member and ordained as deacon in absentia and then transferred back to the Malaysia Mission Conference. Southwest Kansas obliged and cabled Thoburn indicating that they did what was requested of them. Thus, on March 10, Thoburn ordained Zamora as deacon at the Institute, making him the first ordained Filipino Methodist minister.²⁹ Immediately after this, Zamora was sent to Shanghai for a few months of seminary training.³⁰

Upon his return, Zamora was appointed an itinerant evangelist, which gained him fame among Tagalogs.³¹ The earliest center of his evangelistic work was at Malibay, a town south of Manila. The people of the town together with their officials have decided to affiliate with the Methodists by the droves. On the recommendation of the town presidente (mayor), the services were held in a large, old, Roman Catholic Church damaged during in fighting between American troops and Filipino soldiers. Four times priests failed to reclaim the church.³² Reporting on the success of Zamora in that area, Homer Stuntz, Manila Presiding Elder, reported that by midsummer of 1901, “there had been compacted there a total of members and probationers such as exceeded the total visible missionary results that were secured in China for fifteen years.”³³

Nicolas Zamora was ordained as elder in 1902. In 1903, he was appointed as the first pastor of the First Filipino Church in Cervantes Street. The church became the nucleus of Methodist work in downtown Manila as it grew rapidly under his dynamic preaching and leadership. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Zamora's evangelistic work continued. He was also called upon for teaching responsibilities. At a time when the Methodists had no seminary yet, he was among the regular lecturers in the Bible Institutes on such subjects as the life of Christ and on the life of John Wesley. Later, when the Methodist Florence Nicholson Seminary opened, he lectured there and at the Harris Deaconess Training School as well.³⁴

Because of his great influence among Filipino converts, Zamora was relied upon to help pacify a growing resentment in St. Paul’s Church in Tondo, Manila. Apparently, the whole congregation, led by its local preachers and exhorters, was planning to separate from the church. At the crux of the disaffection was the Tondo society known as Ang Kapisanan ng Katotohanan (The Truth Society) formed in 1904 which advocated both political and ecclesiastical independence.³⁵ Thus, at the 1906 conference, Bishop William F. Oldham assigned Zamora to Tondo where he, according to Manila District Superintendent, Marvin A. Rader, “has shown courage, grace, good sense, kindness, wisdom and fitness for the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”³⁶ A year later, despite overtures by its leaders to win his support, Zamora reported to have been successful in preventing the unrest with the eventual dissolution of the Katotohanan through his “judicious use of the Methodist Discipline.”³⁷

Nevertheless, despite assurances by Zamora of the Katotohanan’s demise, sentiments for ecclesiastical independence continued to pervade the same congregation. “Outwardly there was peace, but beneath the surface of the seeming calm, the dissatisfaction and resentment continued to increase,” as Bishop Dionisio Alejandro wrote.³⁸ Gradually, the Tondo members tried to convince Zamora, and after two years, finally won him to their cause. The final straw that led to this was his resentment over the accusations of Manila District Superintendent Harry Farmer on alleged illegal marriage practices, as in marrying minors without parental consent and charging exorbitant fees. In the heated argument that ensued, Zamora argued against the accusations.³⁹

Thus, in the morning of February 21, 1909, before a congregation of several hundreds at St. Paul’s Church in Tondo, Manila, Zamora bid farewell and announced from the pulpit that he was withdrawing from the Methodist Episcopal Church.⁴⁰ In a long gathering among several Tondo-based local preachers and exhorters that same day, they decided to surrender their licenses and form an independent Filipino Methodist Church. It was named Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas (IEMELIF), a church that was intended to be free from foreign control and leadership.⁴¹ Such was the aim as Zamora declared in his sermon: “It is ordained of God that in the Philippines, the Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas be established, which shall be run by Filipinos and where the Gospel shall be preached in the languages of the Philippines.”⁴²

Arriving that same Sunday from Singapore, Bishop Oldham issued a circular to meet with Zamora and the others but it was to no avail. Though a few of the lay persons came, Zamora was not present.⁴³ He stood with his decision, having set his church’s first worship service at the Rizal Theater the following Sunday.⁴⁴ Days later, at the second session of the Annual Conference at First Church, Zamora and two other ordained ministers, Diosdado Alvarez and Alejandro Reyes officially withdrawn their membership and surrendered their ordination papers to the conference. On March 4, Alvarez and Reyes withdrawn under good standing, while the following day, Zamora was permitted to withdraw under a “punitive Disciplinary category” for “having declined to do the work of a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”⁴⁵ They were also joined by one probationer, and several lay preachers. Almost all of the Tondo members and about a hundred members from the neighboring First Church in Cervantes Street also followed the group.⁴⁶
The movement initially spread among the Tagalogs and the Spanish-speaking Filipinos. Sending out preachers to outlaying provinces a month later, it was reported to have met success even among the Ilocanos in Nueva Ecija. Of the estimated 30,000 Filipino Methodists in the Philippines at that time, approximately 1,500 joined the secession. The movement was largely among the older Tagalogs “who had lived through the fires of the revolutionary period” and most of those who stayed were from the younger generation who were thought to be moderate and accepting of American colonial policies.⁴⁷ In a letter to the Board of Foreign Missions in New York, Rader admitted: “The defection by Nicolas Zamora has seriously affected our work on this district, especially in and around Manila.... Nicolas has poured forth all of his wrath to that end.”⁴⁸ Though a sense of bitterness could have possibly had a hand behind the secession, other factors and sentiments should also be considered.

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