Pascual, Franchezcka Giannah Mari V.

BSIT – FOPM02
Instructions: In 400 to 500 words, write your individual position paper on the topic assigned,
highlighting the significant findings through analysis of primary and secondary sources. Make
sure to cite the sources properly and make your argument convincing.

Limasawa Island is found in the province of Southern Leyte's southern coast. Limasawa,
a small but vibrant city in the Philippines and Asia, was the site of the first Christian Mass in the
Philippines and Asia. There was also the first Roman Catholic service in the Philippines (March
31, 1521). The First Cross and the First Mass shrines are two often visited places that provide
visitors with a unique opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the Portuguese adventurer to the
beginning of Christianity in the area. Visayan people live on the island and perform subsistence
agriculture and fishing.
The Republic Act 2733 confirms one piece of evidence that the first mass had been
conducted on Limasawa Island. According to this piece of law, the first mass was held on
Limasawa Island. This is the area where it is stated that the first mass was also carried out in
Limasawa. The location is thought to be a national shrine in Magallanes, Limasawa Island, Leyte
Province, commemorating the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, according to Section 1.
This is obvious and precise proof, as the government approved the republic act, and many
historians and scholars have reviewed it to verify its validity.
Many Philippine history books claim that Fray Pedro de Valderrama kept it after the
Spanish conqueror Ferdinand Magellan arrived on the island and developed a friendly
connection with the natives of Limasawa, Leyte. However, in 1995, Agusan del Norte deputy
Butuan signed a bill in Congress that contradicted the widely held belief that Limasawa was the
first mass gathering place. According to historian Sonia Zaide's sources, the first mass was held
in Masao, Butuan.
The Butuan heritage can be represented in the following way: Local tradition in the
Butuan area was documented in Fr. Francisco Colin's Labor Evangelica, published in 1663, and
Fr. Francisco Combes' Historia Mindanao y Jolo, published in 1667. Colin refers to it as the first
mass, although Combes remembers constructing a cross with much ceremony rather than the
mass itself.The Limasawa idea, on the other hand, emerged from a study of Magellan's
biographer, Antonio Pigafetta, and Victoria's pilot, Francisco Albo's records. Albo also misses
the first mass, just mentioning the cross-planting. Albo characterized this area as having three
visible islands to the west and southwest(2), which Limasawa's terrain would have permitted.
Butuan's north, on the other hand, is devoid of islands.
Nonetheless, a sign in front of the Parish Church of Saint James the Great in Bolinao,
Pangasinan, claims that Fray Odorico Pordenone of Friuli, Italy, performed the first formal
Church Service in the Philippines in 1324. Despite the contradictory assertions, the National
Historical Institute reaffirmed earlier observations and declarations made in 1960 under Republic
Act No. 2733, designating Limasawa to be the first mass place.
 According to the National Historical Institute, the first-ever Christian Mass in the world
was held on Limasawa, south of Leyte, on March 31, 1521, rather than in Butuan City. The most
reliable and persuasive account of the Magellan trip to the Philippine coasts in 1521 is Antonio
Pigafetta, which is believed to be the only significant evidence for the celebration of the first
Christian Mass on Philippine territory. James Robertson's English translation of Pigaffeta's story
from the original Italian manuscript is the most reliable in being "authentic" to the original text
as acknowledged by the University of the Philippine's Department of European Languages.
Although Masao is not an island in Butuan, a barangay in the Agusan River delta in the
Butuan Region, the Mazaua of Pigafetta is an island on the southwestern coast of Leyte where
the first Christian Mass was held on Philippine soil. Mazaua's location matched that of
Limasawa, according to Pigafetta's map. Limasawa Island, where Magellan and his crew landed
and conducted the first mass, is often referred to as the Philippine government by the powerful
Roman Catholic Church. The Embassy of Spain also accepted Limasawa as the site of
Magellan's landfall. The Galleon Andalucia was sent to explore Maasin City for five days and
Limasawa for three hours.
"The Portuguese Embassy in Metro Manila accepted Limasawa as the "Mazzaua"
mentioned by Pigafetta as the island where Magellan and his troops held the First Easter Mass or
established Christianity for the island's natives.
With all this evidence stated, the first mass argument appears to be better framed as a
question about where the first definite mass is located. Proponents of the Butuan tradition do not
dispute the existence of a mass at Limasawa. In their individual histories, in which Pigafetta and
Albo witnessed this. Limasawa also meets the required specifications in terms of geography,
meanwhile Butuan does not.
The Butuan tradition appears to be based on the idea that the mass was not held in
Limasawa. Because the Butuan tradition's deductive arguments for the first mass aren't clear, I
feel Limasawa has a firm claim to the first mass distinction. Limasawa is a geographical and a
descriptive match. The Butuan tradition lacks all these characteristics. An inferential argument
cannot be built solely on historical citations proposing Butuan, especially when a fresh,
contextual examination of the cited primary source logs leads me to completely different
conclusions than two 17th century Jesuits.

References:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Limasawa

Bernard, M. (2013). Butuan or Limasawa: The Site of the First Mass in the Philippines: A Reexamination of the Evidence.
Retrieved September 10, 2018, from https://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/budhi/article/view/582/579

PIgafetta , A. (1964). First Voyage Around the World . In Filipiniana Book Guild. Manila. The Lawphil Project . (n.d.). Retrieved
from lawphil.net.

Cruz, G. C., & Asuncion, N. M. (2019). Readings in Philippine History. C&E Publishing, Inc. National Statistical Coordination
Board (NSCB), (2009). Limasawa Island: Site of the First Mass in the Philippines and in Asia: A Municipal Profile. Retrieved
September 6, 2018, from http://www.nap.psa.gov.ph/ru8/profiles/Municipal_%20Profile/Municipal_Profile_Limasa wa.pdf