READINGS IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY
AMT 1-7 GROUP 3
CASE STUDY #1
Where Did the First Catholic Mass
Take Place in the Philippines?
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CASAURAN
DELGADO
DELIMA
DELIMA
DELOS ANGELES
Masao, Butuan City
or Limasawa, Southern
Leyte
Butuan has long been
believed as the site of the
first mass.
This has been the case for
almost three centuries,
culminating in the construction
of the monument in 1872 near
Agusan river which
commemorates the expedition’s
arrival and celebration of Mass
on April 8, 1521.
It must be noted that there are only two primary sources that
historians refer to in identifying the site of the first Mass.
One is the log kept by Francisco Albo, a pilot of one of
Magellan's ship, Trinidad. He was one of the 18 survivors who
returned with Sebastian Elcano on the ship Victoria after they
circumnavigated the world.
The other, and more complete, was the account by Antonio
Pigafetta, Primo viaggio intorno al mondo (First Voyage Around
the World). Pigafetta, like Albo, was a member of the Magellan
expedition and an eyewitness of the events, particularly, of the
first Mass. Antonio Pigafetta - was an Italian scholar and
explorer from the Republic of Venice. He joined the expedition
to the Spice Islands led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He
served as Magellan's assistant and kept an accurate journal.
Pigafetta was one of the 18 men out of 240 who returned to
Spain in 1522
Masao, Butuan City Evidences
• In 1872, a monument to commemorate the site of the first mass on the
Philippines was erected in Butuan.
• In 1953, the people in Butuan ask the Philippine Historical Committee to
rehabilitate the monument or place a marker on the site.
• Gregorio Zaide a Filipino historian, author and politician from the town
of Pagsanjan, Laguna in the Philippines, claims the location of the first
mass is in Butuan base on Pigafetta’s acccount.
• American historian Emma Helen Blair and John Alexander Robertson
claimed in 1909 that the island of Mazaua is the present island of
Limawasabut did not give explanation.
Masao, Butuan City Evidences
• President Carlos P. Garcia did not sign the law [R.A. No. 2733]. An Act to
Declare the Site in Magallanes, Limasawa Island in the Province of Leyte
• According to primary records, the expedition traveled 20 to 25 leagues
from Homonhon, the first landing point. If they had been to Limasawa
Island, the distance is only 14.6 leagues or one-half of that length.
• The relevance of the name Masao , to Pigafetta’s account , Mazaua.
• Francisco Albo’s Log Book one of the pilot in
the voyage of Magellan , who is included in 18
survivors, writes on his book that they erected
a cross on a mountain that overlooks the
island.
• On June 19, 1960, the Philippine Congress
enacted a bill [R.A. No. 2733] declaring
Limasawa as the place where Magellan
celebrated the first recorded mass in the
Philippines on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521.
Limasawa,
Southern
Leyte
Evidences
•Using the primary source
available, Jesuit priest Miguel A.
Bernad in his work Butuan or
Limasawa: The Site of the First
Mass in the Philippines: A
Reexamination of Evidence (1981)
lays down the argument that in the
Pigafetta account, a crucial aspect
of Butuan was not mentioned- the
river. Butuanis the riverine
settlement, situated on the Agusan
River. The beach of the river, which
makes part of a distinct
characteristic
of
Butuan's
geography that seemed to be too
much important to be missed.
The first Catholic Mass in
the Philippines
•In 1996, The first ever Christian Mass in the country
on March 31, 1521 was celebrated in the island of
Limasawa, south of Leyte and not in Butuan City, so
declared the National Historical Institute.
•It was officiated by a priest named Father Pedro
Valderrama in the shore of Mazaua in Pigafetta’s
journal , whom people believe is the town
specifically in the shore of Limasawa in Southern
Leyte. It is popularly known as the birthplace of the
Church in the Philippines.
REFERENCES
• https://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/index.php/budhi/article/view/582/57
9
• Schreurs, P. (1981). THE FIRST MASS SITE REVISITED. Philippine
Quarterly of Culture and Society, 9(3), 192-216. Retrieved November
9, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29791729