Site of the First mass in the PH
ANTONIO PIGAFETTA
- around 1491 when he was born at Vicenza,
Republic of Venice or was know now as Italy
and died at the aged of 39-40 around 1531
- He studied astronomy; geography and
cartography
- an Italian scholar and explorer from the
Republic of Venice
- He travelled with the Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan and his crew on their First
Voyage around the world
- He was one of the 18 men who returned to
Spain in 1522
* The first Catholic Mass in the
Philippines was held on March
31, 1521
(Eastern Sunday)
* Father Pedro de Valderrama
* located at the Southern Leyte
* a popularly known as the
birthplace of the Church in the
Philippines.
*Holy First Mass marked the birth
of Roman Catholicism in the
Philippines.
Controversies between Limasawa and
Masao/Butuan
Masao
*1872 : A monument to
commemorate the site of first
mass on the Philippines was
erected in Butuan.
*1953: The people in Butuan
asked the Philippine Historical
Committee to rehabilitate the
monument or place a marker on
the site.
*On the basis of this objection the
monument was re erected but the marble
slab stating it was the site of first mass
was removed.
*Zaide identified Masao in Butuan as the
location of the first mass. The basis
Zaide’s claim is the diary of Antonio
Pigafetta, chronicle of Magellan’s
Voyage
Limasawa
*Jaime de Veyra stated that the first
mass was celebrated in Limawasa
not in Butuan.
*Historian Pablo Pastells stating by
the footnote to Francisco Colin’s
Labor Evangelica that Magellan did
not go to Butuan but form Limasawa
to Cebu.
* Francisco Albo (pilot of Magellan’s flagship
does not mention the first mass but he writes
that they erected a cross on a mountain which
overlooked three islands the west and the
southwest.
*James Robertson agreed with d) abundance of gold

Pastells in a footnote that “Mazua” e) a developed settlement

was actually Limasawa.

* in the authentic account of Pigafetta, the

port was not in Butuan but an island

named Mazua ( Masawa)

*Father Bernard studied all of Pigafetta’s

maps, which places Mazaua in the southern
tip of the larger island of Leyte; an evaluation
with modern maps will show that this checks
with Limasawa and not Masao or Butuan.

Evidence for Limasawa

1. The evidence of Albo’s Log-Book

2. The Evidence of Pigafetta

a) Pigafetta’s testimony regarding the route;

b)The evidence of Pigafetta’s map

c)The two native kings

d) The seven days at “Mazaua”

e)An argument from omission

3. Summary of the evidence of Albo and

Pigafetta.

4. Confirmatory evidence from the Legazpi

expedition.

Evidence for Masao

1. The name of the place

2. the route from Homonhon

3. the latitude position

4. The geographical features

a) the bonfire

b) the balanghai

c) house