SITE OF

FIRST MASS
IN THE
PHILIPPINES
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.
*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
*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
Pastells in a footnote that “Mazua”
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 the Pigafetta’s
maps, which place in Mazau off the
southern tip of the larger island of Leyte.,
a check with the modern maps will show
that this jibes with Limasawa and not
Masao or Butuan.
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.
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
d) abundance of gold
e) a developed settlement