ACTIVITY 3

 https://www.cnn.ph/news/2020/8/20/NHCP-affirms-Limasawa-Island-as-site-of-first-
Catholic-mass-in-the-country.html

- The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) sustained findings that the
Limasawa Island in Southern Leyte as the site of the 1521 Easter Sunday Mass, the first
Catholic mass in the country. The NHCP panel examined the Italian and French version of
Italian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta’s accounts in the Magellan-Elcano expedition, which
showed the coordinates of the 1521 Easter Sunday Mass are closer to Limasawa.The
national historical commission also studied the 1895 journal articles of historians Trinidad
Pardo de Tavera and Pablo Pastells, SJ, which revisited Pigafetta’s accounts and emphasized
that Limasawa, not Butuan, as the site of the first Catholic mass in the country.The 1971
expedition of naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison and Colombian historian Mauricio
Obregon and the accounts of Spanish naval engineer Ignacio Fernandez Vial and merchant
marine captain Jose Luis Ugarte retraced the Magellan-Elcano voyage and concluded that
Limasawa is the site of the first Catholic mass in the country, the NHCP found out in its
study.The country’s first Catholic mass was officiated by Fr. Pedro Valderrama on March 31,
1521, upon orders of Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The Limasawa mass marked
the birth of Roman Catholicism in the country, which remains as the nation's dominant
religion in the country up to present.
- The viewpoint of this resource is that the First Mass was held in Limawasa Leyte and not in
Masao, Butuan.
EVIDENCES

- Pigafetta's Mazaua, the site of the first Christian Mass held on Philippine soil, is an island
lying off the southwestern tip of Leyte while Masao in Butuan is not an island but a barangay
of Butuan City located in a delta of the Agusan River along the coast of Northern Mindanao.
The position of Mazaua, as plotted by Pigafetta, matched that of Limasawa. The
measurement of distances between Homonhon and Limasawa between Limasawa and
Cebu, as computed by the pro-Limasawa group, matches or approximates the delineations
made by Pigafetta of the distances between Homonhon and Mazaua and between Mazaua
and Cebu.
  https://amazingbutuan.blogspot.com/2009/04/site-of-first-mass-after-488-years.html?
fbclid=IwAR0hXI6M1UtcdbGM9kzWnGdFBEK17gw6to8DO_IJprZ5IlQbdCprnmWUdu4

- 488 years ago Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan "rediscovered" archipelago in March
1521 and made history. Little did he know that more than 400 years later, two places will
contest the site of the recorded First Mass in the Philippines, whether it was held in
Limasawa Island in southern Leyte or in Mazzua or Masao in Butuan. The controversy makes
a mockery of the Philippine history when Limasawa and Masao both commemorated the
anniversary of the recorded First Mass in respective places.The issue sparks when Dr.
Gregorio Zaide and his daughter, Sonia, in several editions during the 1980s of their widely-
disseminated history textbook, insisted that the recorded First Mass was held in Masao,
Butuan and in the process, dismissed the Limasawa claim as erroneous.The First Mass
controversy continues and historian experts have been called to intervene in its hope to
settle the dispute. Over the years, it came to a point when the National Historical Institute,
in a decision handed out a few years back, had ruled that the recorded First Mass in the
Philippines was indeed held in Limasawa Island.

- The viewpoint of this resource is that the First Mass was held in Limawasa Leyte and not in
Masao, Butuan.
EVIDENCES

- The Butuan Cultural and Historical Foundation Incorporated would not rest the case without
putting up a good fight. Mr. Greg Hontiveros, a local historian who authored two books,
“Butuan in Thousand Years” and “A Fire on the Island” stressed, that it is only here in the
Philippines who legislates history that makes Republic Act 2733, AN ACT TO DECLARE THE
SITE IN MAGALLANES, LIMASAWA ISLAND IN THE PROVINCE OF LEYTE, WHERE THE FIRST
MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES WAS HELD AS A NATIONAL SHRINE, TO PROVIDE FOR THE
PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND LANDMARKS a mistake committed by
the government.