SITE

OF THE
FIRST
MASS
There is a controversy regarding the
site of the first Mass ever celebrated
on Philippine soil. Pigafetta tells us
that it was held on Easter Sunday,
the 31st of March 1521, on an island
called"Mazaua".
Antonio • is an Italian scholar and explorer from
the Republic of Venice.
Pigafetta • He studied astronomy; geography and
cartography.
• around 1491 when he was born at
Vicenza, Republic of Venice or was know
now as Italy and died at the aged of 39-
40 around 1531.
• He travelled with the Portuguese
explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his
crew on their First Voyage around the
world.
• He was one of the 18 men who returned
to Spain in 1522.
 When Ferdinand Magellan and his
European crew sailed from San Lucar de
Landing on Barrameda for an expedition to search for

Philippine spices, these explorers landed on the

Philippines after their voyage from other
shores proximate areas. On March 28, 1521, while
at sea, they saw a bonfire which turned out
to be Mazaua (believed to be today's
Limasawa) where they anchored.
 The island's sovereign ruler was Rajah
Siaiu. When Magellan and comrades set
Blood foot on the grounds of Mazaua, he
befriended the Rajah together with his
compact brother Rajah Kulambu of Butuan. In those
days, it was customary among the
indigenous—and in most of southeast
Asia—to seal friendship with a blood
compact. On instigation of Magellan who
had heard the Malayan term for it, casi
casi, the new friends performed the ritual.
This was the first recorded blood compact
between Filipinos and Spaniards. Gifts
were exchanged by the two parties when
the celebration had ended.
 On March 31, 1521, an Easter Sunday,
Magellan ordered a mass to be celebrated
First which was officiated by Father Pedro
Valderrama, the Andalusion chaplain of
mass the fleet, the only priest then. Conducted
near the shores of the island, the Holy First
Mass marked the birth of Roman
Catholicism in the Philippines. Colambu
and Siaiu were the first natives of the
archipelago, which was not yet named
"Philippines" until the expedition of Ruy
Lopez de Villalobos in 1543, to attend the
mass among other native inhabitants.
 In the afternoon of the same day, Magellan
instructed his comrades to plant a large

Planting wooden cross on the top of the hill

overlooking the sea. Magellan's chronicler,
of the Antonio Pigafetta, who recorded the event
said:
cross "After the cross was erected in position, each
of us repeated a Pater Noster and an Ave
Maria, and adored the cross; and the kings
[Colambu and Siaiu] did the same."
Magellan then took ownership of the islands
where he had landed in the name of King
Charles V which he had named earlier on
March 16 ”Archipelago of Saint Lazarus”
because it was the day of the saint when the
Armada reached the archipelago.
 On June 19, 1960, Republic Act No. 2733, called
the Limasawa Law, was enacted without

Proclamati
Executive approval on June 19, 1960. The
legislative fiat declared The site in Magallanes,

on of the
Limasawa Island in the Province of Leyte, where the
first Mass in the Philippines was held is hereby
declared a national shrine to commemorate the
national birth of Christianity in the Philippines. Magallanes is
east of the island of Limasawa. In 1984 Imelda
shrine Marcos had a multi-million pesos Shrine of the
First Holy Mass built, an edifice made of steel,
bricks and polished concrete, and erected on top
of a hill overlooking barangay Magallanes,
Limasawa. A super typhoon completely wiped this
out just a few months later. Another shrine was
inaugurated in 2005.
Limasawa celebrates the historic and religious
coming of the Spaniards every March 31 with a
cultural presentation and anniversary program
dubbed as Sinugdan, meaning "beginning.". Yet
this has no reference at all to a Catholic mass
being held on March 31, 1521.
CONTROVERSIES
BETWEEN
LIMASAWA AND
MASAO/BUTUAN
Masao • 1872 : A monument to commemorate the
site of first mass on the Philippines was
erected in Butuan.

• 1953: The people in Butuan asked the

Philippine Historical Committee to
rehabilitate the monument or place a
marker on the site.
Masao • On the basis of this objection the
monument was re erected but the marble
slab stating it was the site of first mass was
removed.

• Zaide identified Masao in Butuan as the

location of the first mass. The basis Zaide’s
claim is the diary of Antonio Pigafetta,
chronicle of Magellan’s voyage
Limasawa • Jaime de Veyra stated that the first mass
was celebrated in Limawasa not in Butuan.

• Historian Pablo Pastells stating by the

footnote to Francisco Colin’s Labor
Evangelica that Magellan did not go to
Butuan but form Limasawa to Cebu.

• Francisco Albo ( pilot of Magellan’s

flagship does not mention the first mass
but he writes that they erected a cross on a
mountain which overlooked three islands
the west and the southwest.
Limasawa • James Robertson agreed with Pastells in
a footnote that “Mazua” was actually
Limasawa.
•in the authentic account of Pigafetta, the
port was not in Butuan but an island
named Mazua ( Masawa)
• Father Bernard studied all the Pigafetta’s
maps, which place in Mazau off the
southern tip of the larger island of Leyte., a
check with the modern maps will show
that this jibes with Limasawa and not
Masao or Butuan.
Evidence Of 1. The evidence of Albo’s Log-Book.

Limasawa 2. The Evidence of Pigafetta .

a) Pigafetta’s testimony regarding the
route;
b) The evidence of Pigafetta’s map
c) The two native kings
d) The seven days at “Mazaua”
e)An argument from omission
3. Summary of the evidence of Albo and
Pigafetta. 4. Confirmatory evidence from
the Legazpi expedition.
Evidence Of 1. The name of the place

Masao 2. The route from Homonhon

3. The latitude position
4. The geographical features
a) the bonfire
b) the balanghai
c) house
d) abundance of gold
e) a developed settlement