"The historical controversies

masao at bolinao"
 Historical controversies
One contention is that the historical accuracy regarding the country's first
Catholic mass celebration is not only to be settled based on location but
also on when it exactly occurred.

The Mojares Panel addressed the debate by specifying that the historical
occasion that occurred in Limasawa Island be known as the First Easter
Sunday Mass, thereby distinguishing it from prior masses that were
conducted by the Spaniards onboard their ships sailing through the sea
surrounding Samar and the earlier mass supposedly held in Bolinao,
Pangasinan
 Bolinao
Odoric of Pordenone, an Italian and
Franciscan friar and missionary explorer, is
heartily believed by many Pangasinenses
to have celebrated the first mass in
Pangasinan in around 1324 that would
have predated the mass held in 1521 by
Ferdinand Magellan. A marker in front of
Bolinao Church states that the first Mass
on Philippine soil was celebrated in
Bolinao Bay in 1324 by a Franciscan
missionary, Blessed Odorico.21
However, there is scholarly doubt that
Odoric was ever at the Philippines.22
ultimately, the National Historical Institute
led by its chair Ambeth Ocampo recognized
the historical records of Limasawa in
Southern Leyte as the venue of the first
Mass, held on March 31, 1521.
 Masao
Some Filipino historians have long contested the
idea that Limasawa was the site of the first
Catholic mass in the country. 1271 Historian
Sonia Zaide identified Masao (also Mazaua) in
Butuan as the location of the first Christian
mass. The basis of Zaide's claim is the diary of
Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of Magellan's
voyage. In 1995, Agusan del Norte's 1st
congressional district Representative Ching Plaza
filed a bill in Congress contesting the Limasawa
hypothesis and asserting that the "site of the
first mass" was in Butuan.
The Congress of the Philippines referred the matter to
the National Historical Institute for it to study the issue
and recommend a historical finding. NHI chairman Dr.
Samuel K. An reaffirmed Limasawa as the site of the
first mass. It was until at least the 19th century that
the prevailing belief among historians was that the first
mass was held in Butuan.
Butuan is a town in Region
12, while Limasawa is an
island from off shore of
Leyte's southern coast.
Butuan, as reported, is a
river village near the delta
of the Agusan River, which
is not mentioned in the
witness's story.
 First Mass
On November 18, 2007, Bolinao challenged the belief that the
first Mass in the Philippines was held on March 31, 1521, Easter
Sunday, at Limasawa in Southern Leyte. Memorial markers
(donated by Italian priest Luigi Malamocco, 62, from Odorico's
hometown of Friuli, Italy) were set in the town's church and on
Santiago Island, claiming that in 1324, Franciscan missionaries
led by an Italian priest named Odorico celebrated a thanksgiving
Mass thereat and also baptized natives.
QOUTES OF THE DAY 

“History is not the past but a map of

the past, drawn from a particular
point of view, to be useful to the
modern traveller.”
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