Evidences

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines said it has adopted a report
submitted by a panel of scholars who reviewed the supposed site of the celebration of
the 1521 Easter Sunday Mass. In a statement released on Aug. 19, the commission
declared that the celebration of the Holy Eucharist was held on the island of Limasawa
in the present province of Southern Leyte in the central Philippines. The island, about
10 kilometers long from north to south, is believed to be where the first Mass on
Philippine soil took place on March 31, 1521, celebrated by Father Pedro de
Valderrama. The priest came with Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan who was
looking for the land of spices. The government body said the panel of experts was
convened in response to requests from various institutions, including the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in anticipation of the observance of the
quincentennial of the arrival of Christianity in the country.

Monsignor Oscar Cadayona of the Diocese of Maasin, which includes the island of
Limasawa, welcomed the government pronouncement. “We are so happy that our
proofs of the veracity of our claims that our Limasawa is really the site were not
dismantled by those who supported other sites,” said the priest. “It really inspires us, the
bishop, clergy, and the lay faithful to work hard to promote the site as a sacred place of
encounter between God and man,” he added.

Monsignor Cadayona said the people of the diocese are “optimistic” that Filipinos “will
rally behind us as we build structures there as concrete signs of gratitude to the
Almighty for the gift of faith received in Limasawa.” He called on the faithful “to do what
we can” to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the Catholic faith in the Philippines.
“Let us not allow this fear of the pandemic dim the light of faith we received in
Limasawa,” said the priest.

Local historian Rolando Borrinaga, who has been doing research on the site of the first
Mass, expressed joy over the announcement. “My research and advocacy for a western
Limasawa site of the 1521 Easter Sunday Mass took 12 years to get recognized,” he
said.

Rene Escalante, chairman of the National Historical Commission and executive director
of the National Quincentennial Committee, said scholars revisited the issue surrounding
the site of the 1521 Easter Sunday Mass as part of its mandate to resolve historical
controversies. He cited Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of the expedition led by
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who wrote that the first Mass happened on
March 31, 1521, in a place identified as “Mazaua.”

Escalante said the issue as to the exact location of the first Catholic Mass was earlier
resolved by studies done by experts in the past who ruled that the site of the first Mass
was on Limasawa Island. In 2018, however, the National Historical Commission
received requests to reexamine the earlier pronouncements made by historians. “These
requests were made in the light of some claims that there were new primary sources
and evidences that surfaced recently which were not taken into consideration by the
previous panels,” said Escalante in his report. He said the commission also saw the
necessity of reopening a new inquiry because of the forthcoming commemoration of the
500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the country.

Butuan Evidences

Laurence Bergreen gave due recognition of de Mafra’s document in Bergreen’s 2003

work titled Over the Edge of the World, Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the
Globe. It is this document that makes his information an incomparably important
geographical testimony that unlocks the mystery of the island of Mazaua.

Local executives and church officials as well as historians refilling of petition to National
Historical Institute (NHI) asserting that Butuan City, particularly Mazzaua island
(Barangay Pinamangculan) was the official site of the first mass on easter sunday in
1521.

Father Joesilo Amalia- trustee of the Butuan cultural and historical foundation Inc. And
curator of the Butuan Diocese museum. June 19, 1960- RA. No. 2733 “declaration of
Magallanes, Limasawa as the national Shrine of first Mass ever held in the Country”.

Butuan City Cultural and Historical Foundation Inc. Contested the Declaration in early
1980’s-90’s

According to BCHFI there are 28 gathered new pieces of scientific evidence and
comparison between the Two island (mazzaua and limasawa) 10 recovery of
Balahanghai boat in 1976 near masao river. 19th century historians- Fray Joaquin
Martinez de Zuniga to John Foreman and WenceslaoRetana
Stand

The commission concluded that the First Mass was held in Limasawa after it found that:
The most complete and reliable account of the Magellan expedition into Philippine
shores in 1521 is that of Antonio Pigafetta which is deemed as the only credible primary
source of reports on the celebration of the first Christian Mass on Philippine soil. James
Robertson’s English translation of the original Italian manuscript of Pigaffeta’s account
is most reliable for being ‘’faithful’’ to the original text as duly certified by the University
of the Philippines’ Department of European Language.

Pigafetta’s Mazaua, the site of the first Christian Mass held on Philippine soil, is an
island lying off the southwestern tip of Leyte while Masao in Butuan is not an island but
a barangay of Butuan City located in a delta of the Agusan River along the coast of
Northern Mindanao. The position of Mazaua, as plotted by Pigafetta, matched that of
Limasawa. The measurement of distances between Homonhon and Limasawa between
Limasawa and Cebu, as computed by the pro-Limasawa group, matches or
approximates the delineations made by Pigafetta of the distances between Homonhon
and Mazaua and between Mazaua and Cebu.

Magellan’s fleet took a route from Homonhon to Mazaua and from Mazaua to Cebu that
did not at any time touch Butuan or any other part of Mindanao. The docking facilities at
Limasawa did not pose any problem for Magellan’s fleet which anchored near or at
some safe distance from the island of the eastern shore.To the Gancayco Commission,
‘’History is both a useful and fascinating subject. As one travels through time, one is
bound to find it rich in stories. Every kind of testimony is drawn upon from eyewitness
accounts to statistical tables. Personal records, such as diaries, can certainly tell more
than the official documents.

‘’One of the great delights of time travel is encountering the unfamiliar for that is what
brings history to life. We use history, not to tell us what happened or to explain the past,
but make the past alive so that it can explain us and make a future possible,’’ the
commission said, quoting from Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind.

In writing and end to the controversy, the commission said it proceeded with utmost
care. It said that the conclusion was made to enlighten the current generation and
remove all confusion about where the First Mass was held in the Philippines.

Paraphrasing Adlai Stevenson’s, ‘’We can chart our future clearly and wisely when we
know the path that has led to the present,’’ the panel said: ‘’The path is now
conclusively established to have begun at the island of Limasawa where the first ever
Christian Mass on Philippine soil was offered on March 31, 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan
and his men.’’
As recounted by Pigafetta in his chronicle of Magellan’s expedition to the Philippine
islands starting March 16, 1521, the first Christian Mass celebrated on Philippine soil
was made in an island which he called ‘’Mazaua.’’ The precise identity and location of
this venue of the First Mass became the subject of writings of historians and scholars
whose differing interpretations of Pigafetta’s account would eventually spawn lead to a
controversy.

For three centuries, it was the prevailing belief that Pigafetta’s Mazaua was a place
called Masao near Butuan City in Northern Mindanao. The Butuan belief persisted from
the 17th to the 19th century. Limasawa was identified as the most likely venue in 1894
with the publication of a manuscript of Pigafetta’s account of Magellan’s voyage—the
Ambrosian codex in Milan—in its Italian text.

This work written by Pigafetta was made available to scholars including American
James Alexander Robertson who translated into English the original text with the help of
Emma Blair. The translation was incorporated in Robertson’s ‘’The Philippine Islands.’’
According to Fr. Miguel A. Bernal, SJ, an author, the only versions of Pigafetta’s
account available to previous scholars were ‘’summaries and garbled translations.’’ To
understand why Pigafetta’s original text was not available to past scholars, Fr. Peter
Schreurs, M.S.C., Ph.D., parish priest of Magallanes town where Butuan’s Mazaua is
located, said the manuscript given to Charles V was never published and was
considered lost. Fr. Schreurs in his book ‘’The Search for Pigafetta’s Mazaua,’’ said the
other copy of the book was given to the mother of the King of France.The said book was
mentioned in various reports between 1526 and 1534 when an abridged French version
was produced and translated into Italian. This was later used by authors and
cartographers. But the controversy did not stop there. In 1995, the Masao group through
Butuan Rep. Charito Plaza, initiated the filing of a bill, to ‘’Declare the site of Masao,
Butuan City, as the place where the first Easter Mass in the Philippines was held.’’ The
bill was not acted upon.

The bill, which aggravated the controversy, was obviously an attempt to repeal Republic
Act 2733, a law enacted in 1960, ‘’declaring the site in Magallanes, Limasawa island in
the province of Leyte, where the First Mass in the Philippines was held as a national
shrine.’’ It was in 1971 when residents and visitors saw the grandeur of the First Mass
celebration prepared by former President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, who
is from Leyte. The celebration was the 450th anniversary.

Pedencio Olojan, 90, said he could not remember any activities at all related to the First
Mass. But he recalled that when he was 18 years old he was digging for treasure with
several other treasure hunters. He failed to find any treasure but a friend sold him an
artifact for P100. That was 81 years ago. Some of the treasures which his friend dug up
are now in a museum in Butuan City.