SOCSCI 1100

Where did the First mass take place?

The Easter Sunday Mass
March 31, 1521

El domingo de Pascua, que era el último día del mes de marzo...

• Antonio Pigafetta

Presented by Group 1

Agustin, Shayne

Ancheta, Irrish Pearl

Asuncion, Jeruel

Diaz, Hans Cleverzon

Mateo, Mark Christopher

Portana, Jeriene Joy

Santiago, Ashley Mae

Sarmiento, Aireen Joy

BSABE 2-1
Introduction

Early on the morning of Sunday, the last of March, and Easter Day, 1521, Antonio Pigafetta
and about 50 crew will witness and record an important historic event in the Philippines.
Celebrated by Fr. Pedro de Valderrama, the First, and an Easter Sunday Mass is held along the
shores of what Pigafetta referred to as “Mazaua,” marking the birth of Roman Catholicism in the
land. 503 years later, Roman Catholicism became a massive part of the life of most Filipino people
today. However, there is still debate on the real location of this historic event. There are two
prominent claims on where this happened, one is believed to have happened on the Island of
Limasawa in Southern Leyte or in Masao, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.

Evidences: Limasawa Evidences: Masao

1. Antonio Pigafetta’s Documentation 1. Antonio Pigafetta’s Documentation

• The name of the place - Pigafetta tells us
that the first mass was held on Easter
• Pigafetta’s Documentation of the Sunday March 31 1521 on the island
Route - Antonio Pigafetta called Mazaua. There are two native
meticulously recorded the route of the chieftains, rajah of Mazaua and rajah of
Magellan Expedition in his diary, Butuan. The Chronicles of Magellan the
noting their anchorage at an island he name of the place was 3 syllables “
referred to as "Mazaua" for seven masao” , masao was located at the mouth
days. This island's prolonged stay of Agusan River in Northern Mindanao.
suggests its significance, including
the celebration of the first Mass. • The latitude position - Some of the
primary sources locate the place at 90
• Pigafetta’s Map Depiction - North latitude and others 9 2/3 degrees.
Pigafetta's maps, crafted during the The latitude position eliminates
expedition, visually depict the places limasawa because it's closer by ten
visited, including the island of degrees and strengthens the claim of
Mazaua about neighboring islands. Masao, Butuan because it is exactly 9
The inclusion of Mazaua on degrees.
Pigafetta's maps corroborates its
importance as a pivotal location 2. Published Works
during the expedition.
Fr. Francisco Colin S.J. - “Labor
Evangelica” (1592-1660)
• Encounter with Native Kings - Both
• published in Madrid in 1663,
Pigafetta and Francisco Albo, another
survivor of the expedition, annotated by Fr. Pablo Pastels
documented the encounter with two S.J. in 1903.
native kings during their time at • Magellan’s expedition saw the
Mazaua. This indicates the island's island of Ibabao (Samar) but they
political and cultural significance, first touch Humunu
(Homonhon).
 further supporting its role as a key • Easter Sunday- the first mass was
location during the expedition. held in Butuan.
• Chief of Dimasaua- relative of
• Extended 7-day Stay - Pigafetta's Butuan chief and Zebu (Cebu)
diary recounts the activities during gave most signal service.
their seven-day stay at Mazaua, • After the mass, planting of the
emphasizing its prolonged duration. cross, taking possession of the
This extended period suggests island
Mazaua was not merely a brief
stopover but a site of substantive Fr. Francisco Combe S.J. - “Historia
importance, potentially including the de Mindanano Y Jolo'' (1620-1665)
first Mass celebration.
• published in Madrid 1667,
2. Francisco Albo’s Logbook transcribed by Wenceslao Retana
• The first Catholic mass has long been and Fr. Pablo Pastells.
believed to have been held in Butuan. • Magellan’s expedition entered
Until the end of the 19th and early Siargao or Surigao, landed in
20th centuries, through in-depth Limasawa, went to Butuan
studies on the history of the whose chieftain is more
Philippines, scholars have discovered powerful, planted a cross, went
ways of providing evidence behind back to Limasawa, he claimed
the existing information about what the Archipelago but he doesn’t
has truly happened in the past. One of mention the first mass.
the primary sources that is widely
used to prove the site of the first
Catholic mass is the diary of
3. The route to Cebu
Francisco Albo.
• Taken by the explorers is almost exactly
• Francisco Albo was part of Magellan's
similar to the one now taken by the
1519 expedition. He began the voyage
motor vessels from Cebu to Butuan. The
as a boatswain on the Carrack
king of Masao (kolambu) guided the
Trinidad; he was one of the eighteen
explorers to cebu and acted as their
survivors of the expedition and had
interpreter and intermediary when they
become the pilot of the Victoria (the
met the cebu king. On the contrary there
only ship to complete the first
is no sea in the traffic from Limasawa to
circumnavigation) by the time the
cebu. And the distance to cebu according
expedition returned to Spain in 1522.
to pigafetta was 35 leagues equivalent to
Albo kept his own diary in a logbook
140 miles, limasawa was 80 miles
during their voyage, named the Diario
distance or almost half of the distance
de Derrotero. (Torodash, 1971)
traveled in pigafettas' diary.
• In Albo's diary, he made no mention
of the first mass or where it happened. 4. Geographical Features
But he has written a description of a • Bonfire - The explorers attention was
place where Magellan placed the caught by the light or the bonfire that
cross, which is upon a mountain top they saw one day before they drift
from which three islands could be ashore. Only Butuanon and Tausug have
 seen to the west and southwest; this is the word “masawa”, which means
the island of "Masava," which also fits “bright light”.
the southern end of Limasawa. This • Balanghai - Pigafetta and his peers once
doesn't apply to Butuan since there are attended a Balanghai ritual. There have
no islands that could be seen in those been nine excavated balanghai relics in
directions. Butuan.
• Abundance of Gold - The Western
INFORMATION FOUND FROM explorers got astounded at the
FRANCISCO ALBO'S LOGBOOK abundance of gold in Masao and Butuan,
for that was the main currency of Butuan
1. On the 16th day of March (1521), as they before the Spaniards came.
sailed in a westerly direction from Ladrones,
• Developed settlement - The Philippine
they saw land towards the northwest, but
Congress enacted a bill (RA 2733) on
owing to the many shallow places, they didn't
June 19, 1960, declaring Limasawa as
approach it. They found later that its name
the place where Magellan celebrated the
was Yunagan.
first recorded mass in the Philippines.
2. They went instead that same day However, President Carlos P. Garcia did
southwards to another small island named not sign the law because he was
Suluan, and there they anchored. There they uncertain that the “Mazaua” in the
saw some canoes, but these fled as the Pigafetta Codex is Limasawa.
Spaniards approached. This island was at 9
5. The Brick Pillar Monument
and two-thirds degrees North latitude.
• In 1872 near the mouth of the Agusan
3. Departing from those 2 islands, they sailed
River, a monument to comemorate the
westward to the uninhibited island of "Gada,"
first mass was erected.
where they took in a supply of wood and
water. The sea around that island was free
In a marble slab, an inscription says. “To
from shallows. (Albo does not give the
the Immortal Magellan: the People of
latitude of this island, but from Pigafettas
Butuan with their Parish Priest and the
testimony, this seems to be the "Aquada," or
Spaniards residents herein, to
Homonhon, at 10 degrees North latitude.)
commemorate his arrival and the
4. From that island, they sailed westwards celebration of the First Mass on the site
towards a large island named Seilani that was on 8th of April 1521. Erected in 1872,
inhabited and was known to have gold. under the District Governor Jose Ma.
(Seilani—or, as Pigafetta calls it, Ceylon— Carvallo”
was the island of Leyte.)

5. Sailing southwards along the coast of that

large island of Seilani, they turned southwest
to a small island called "Mazava.". That
island is also at a latitude of 9 and two-thirds
degrees north.

6. The people of that island, Mazava, are very

good. There the Spaniards planted a cross
upon a mountain top, and from there they
were shown three islands to the west and
southwest, where they were told there was
much gold. They showed us how the gold was
gathered, which came in small pieces like
peas and lentils.

7. From Mazava, they sailed northward to

Seilani. They followed the coast of Seilani in
a northwesterly direction, ascending up to 10
degrees of latitude, where they saw three
small islands.

8. From there, they sailed westwards some 10

leagues, and there they saw 3 islets, where
they dropped anchor for the night. In the
morning, they sailed southwest some 12
leagues, down to a latitude of 10 and one-third
degrees. There they entered a channel
between two islands, one of which was called
"Matan" and the other "Subu.".

9. They sailed down that channel and then

turned westward, anchored at the town (la
villa) of Subu, where they stayed for more
days, obtained provisions, and entered into a
peace pact with the local king.

10. The town of Subu was in an east-west

direction with the islands of Suluan and
Mazava. But between Mazava and Subu,
there were so many shallows that the boats
could not go westward directly; they had to go
in a roundabout way. It must be noted that in
the Albos account, the location of Mazava fits
the location of the island of Limasawa, at the
southern tip of Leyte, at 9°54. Albo does not
mention the first mass, but only a planting of
the cross upon a mountaintop from which
three islands could be seen to the west of the
southwest, which also fits the southern end of
Limasawa.

3. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s

Expedition Confirmation
 • 44 years after Magellan,
Legazpi wanted to visit the
island of Mazaua. They
reached it but they found the
place to be hostile.
• They left Mazaua, sailed and
rounded the island of “Panae”
(Panaon Leyte) but never
landed.
• Instead, they went to
Camiguin, visible from the
island of Mazaua. Planning to
head to Butuan but wind drove
them to Bohol.

References:

• "Diario o` derotero del viage de Magallanes desde el cabo se S. Agustin en el Brazil hasta el regreso a Espana de la nao Victoria,
escrito por Frandsco Albo, " Document no. xxii in Collecion de viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde
fines del siglo XV, Ed. Martin Fernandez de Navarrete (reprinted Buenos Aires 1945, 5 Vols.) IV 191-225. As cited in Miguel A.
Bernad "Butuan or Limasawa? The site of the first Mass in the Philippines: A Reexamination of evidence" 1981, Kinaadman: A
journal of Southern Philippines, Vol. III 1-35
• Torodash, M. (1971). Magellan Historiography. Hahr-Hispanic American Historical Review, 51(2), 313–335.
https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-51.2.313
• Balikbayan Magazine. (2021, April 29). Ending the Limasawa controversy. Balikbayan Magazine.
https://balikbayanmagazine.com/arts-culture/ending-the-limasawa-controversy/
• Zafra, N. (1956). Readings in Philippine History - Univesity of the Philippines [PDF]. Retrieved from
https://digital.soas.ac.uk/content/LO/AA/00/59/03/00001/pdf.pdf
• Planearyzza. (2023, October 15). 00 APPENDICES-READINGS 2020 h Butuan or Limasawa. studylib.net.
https://studylib.net/doc/27087578/00-appendices-readings-2020-h-butuan-or-
limasawa?fbclid=IwAR2a3jJ0A3qSBqCydrbL_E4HfKGPAbjmWp7vW4-ckDMw8zAZmqIf62_XnPU
• Bernard , M. (2001). Butuan or Limasawa? The Site of the First Mass in the Philippines: A Reexamination of the Evidence . Retrieved
March 16, 2024, from journals.ateneo.edu website: https://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/index.php/budhi/article/download/582/579
• “Butuan to Pursue Claim It Was Site of First Mass in RP 485 Years Ago.” Philstar.com, 2 Apr. 2006,
www.philstar.com/headlines/2006/04/02/329389/butuan-pursue-claim-it-was-site-first-mass-rp-485-years-ago.
• Contributor, M. P. (2013, April 8). PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions. Www.pressreader.com; Philippine
Daily Inquirer. https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/philippine-daily-inquirer-1109/20130408/282415576753877
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