Moses Orimolade Tunolase (1875–1933) is the founder of the first African Pentecostal movement, the Eternal Sacred Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim, which was established in 1925.
Moses Orimolade Tunolase was born 1879 into the royal family of Ayibiri in Okorun district of the Yoruba town of Ikare-Akoko in the Ondo State of Nigeria.
Orimolade unlike most babies could walk from birth, but his father was ashamed of this and took his son to a herbalist which caused him to lose the use of his legs .
Orimolade started his missionary work as an itinerant preacher in Ikare (his Yoruba town of birth) with no formal education, particularly targeting traditional worshippers.
Some of the Christianized western world views and European moral values contradicted and contravened the nature and culture of the African people.
The difference in understanding of religious expression resulted in clashes and conflicts between the missionaries and the African leadership in the Anglican Church.
The healing and survival of so many Nigerians among the Aladuras during the Spanish flu spurred the growth and spread of these prayer groups in the early 1920s.
He developed a reputation for seasoned preaching and fervent prayer and became known among the people as the "Baba Aladura" (Father that prays).
The prosperity and popularity of Moses Orimolade was not welcomed among the Anglican leadership and led to his ejection from the premises of Holy Trinity on 11 September 1924.
On 18 June 1925 the Aladura Band was called to the rescue of an unconscious Methodist teenage girl, Abiodun Akinsowon, who had fallen into a trance when she tried to look into the chalice carried by the Catholic Archbishop on Corpus Christi public procession.
Abiodun Akinsowon rode with Moses Orimolade in the hammock chair to the envy of many men and women in the band.
The elders of the western Conference of the band declared independence and formed the Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim following their futile effort to reunite Abiodun Akinsowon and Moses Orimolade.
The Parent Body was registered and incorporated in 1930 as the Eternal Sacred Order of the Cherubim and Seraphim (ESOC&S), with Moses Orimolade alias Baba Aladura as the Sole Founder and Spiritual Head "ALAGBA".
However he was eventually delivered, and the very day he was born he started walking, this caused his father to use juju on him to avoid embarrassment.
However, an epileptic woman who was being treated by the father of Moses fell on him when she had fit but that did not kill the newly baby boy as he grew up to be a very powerful preacher and miracle healer.While some said he was lame from birth but George denied that he was not,’’ he used to carry my father on his shoulder to the farm., so it is not true that he was lame’’.. During his lifetime, he neither married nor had children.
Till he died nobody was able to unravel the mystery.’’ According to Ayanfe ‘’ some white men who heard about his good works came to approach him to come and heal their boss in the overseas.
Accompanied by the late Highlife musician I.K Dairo who was also popularly called Baba Aladura, and on October 19, 1975, his body was exhumed and taken to Ikare, Akoko.
Not only this, the faithful also placed kegs of water and other things where they pray over them invoking the God of Moses Orimolade to heal, assist and answer their prayers.
In the family house of the Orimolade Tunolases at Okorun also in Iyometa Area of Ikare is a special room where the late founder lived before he died.
Corroborating what Ayanfe said, the old man in the house, Pa Tunolase said he used to hear spiritual songs every night but he is not afraid for he knew it is the Angels from Heaven that are singing.
Apostle Oladokun Aduragbemi the President General and the Spiritual Head of Eso, C&S, Noah’s Ark in London said he came all the way from London to participate in the remembrance of the departed leader and said the room where Moses used in his father’s house is a sacred place where one’s prayer is accepted straight if one has faith.
According to Prophet Adeleke Adeyanju, Moses Orimolade, by power of The Sovereign Lord established two streams which still exist till today.
2. located in Ijoko, Ogun State The Ifako stream was made when a man named Coker (a community leader) told Moses Orimolade that there was no water for the people in area to drink or wash.
He stuck his staff into the ground and commanded that the Jordan River in Israel establishes itself in the Ijoko area because of the woman.
For Popoola Babatunde Raphael, the growth within the Aladura can be compared with that of the Catholic, as it is growing everyday and no other sect can rival it.
The Order believes in the Holy Bible as the word of God and in salvation through Jesus Christ and in the Trinity in unity, the use of incense, purification by prayer and fasting and resurrection of the dead.
It believes in the curative effect of prayer for all afflictions, spiritual and temporal, but condemns and abhors the use of charms or fetish witchcraft or sorcery of any kind and all heathenish sacrifices and practices.
It is not averse to the judicious use of curative herbs, the engagement of qualified medical practitioners or doctors or the use of patent medicines or other drugs.