1600s - Armenian, Greek and Macedonian Orthodox Christians

One source suggests that the Armenians, Greeks and Mecedonians were the first Orthodox Christians on the island. An eighteenth century document written by Murillo Velarde, a Jesuit historian describing their Order’s missionary labors in the Philippines, records the presence of Armenian, Greek and Macedonian settlers in the Philippine capital city of Manila as early as 1618. [1] (Blair & Robertson's The Philippine Islands 1493-1898, Cleveland, Ohio: 1906, Vol. XLIV, p. 27).

In his book Historia de Philipinas (published in Manila, 1749), the Jesuit historian Velarde wrotes: "I believe that there is no city in the world in which so many nationalities come together as here....There are a considerable number of Armenians, and some Persians; and Tartars, Macedonians, Turks, and Greeks....so that he who spends an afternoon on the tuley or bridge of Manila will see all these nationalities pass by him, behold their costumes, and hear their languages - something which cannot be done in any other city in the entire Spanish monarchy, and hardly in any other region in all the world." (Cited in Blair & Robertson's The Philippine Islands 1493-1898, Cleveland, Ohio: 1906, Vol. XLIV, p. 29). [2]