First City Providential College

Brgy. Narra Francisco Homes, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
Tel. No.: (044) 815-6814 Fax No.: (044)815-7137
S.Y 2019 - 2020

Site of the First Mass in the

Philippines

Group 1: Castillo, Alyssa

Nool, Jovelito S.
Abanag, Rafael

Mr. Ryan Bolanos

Readings in Philippine History
Site of the First Mass in the Philippines
I. Intoduction

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". Two native chieftains were in attendance: the rajah of Mazaua and the rajah of
Butuan. After the Mass the crowd went up a little hill and planted a wooden cross upon its
summit. The subject of controversy is the identity of this place which Pigafetta calls "Mazaua,"
There are two conflicting claims as to its identity: one school of thought points to the little island
south of Leyte which in the maps is called Limasawa; the other school rejects that claim and
points instead to the beach called Masao at the mouth of the Agusan River in northern
Mindanao, near what was then the village (now the city) of Butuan.

II. Presentation of issues/Controversies/arguments with primary sources

The Butuan Tradition

The Butuan claim rests upon a tradition that was almost unanimous and unbroken for three
centuries, namely the 17th, the 18th and the [Link] the strength of that tradition and
embodying it, a monument was erected in 1872 near the mouth of the Agusan River at a spot
that was then within the municipal boundaries of Butuan, but which today belongs to the
separate municipality of Magallanes, named after Ferdinand Magellan.

The monument was a brick pillar on which was a marble slab that contained an inscription which
might be translated as follows: To the Immortal Magellan: the People of Butuan with their Parish
Priest and the Spaniards resident therein,to commemorate his arrival and the celebration of the
First Mass on this site on the 8th of April 1521. Erected in 1872, under the District Governor
Jose Ma. Carvallo.

The monument was erected apparently at the instigation of the parish priest of Butuan,who at
the time was a Spanish friar of the Order of Augustinian Recollects. The date given for the first
Mass (8 April 1521) may be an obvious error, or it may be a clumsy and anachronistic attempt to
translate the original date in terms of the Gregorian [Link] any case, that monument is a
testimonial to the tradition that remained vigorous until the end of the 19th century, namely, that
Magellan and his expedition landed at Butuan and celebrated there the first Mass ever offered
on Philippine soil.

Shift

The Butuan tradition was already in possession by the middle of the 17th century: so much so
that it was accepted without question by two Jesuit historians who otherwise were quite careful
of their facts.
One of these historians was Father Francisco Colin S.J. whose Labor evangelica was first
published in Madrid in 1663, three years after his death. The work was reissued 240 years later
in a magnificent three-volume edition annotated by Father Pablo Pastells S.J. (Madrid, 1903).

The other Jesuit writer of the mid-17th century was Father Francisco Combés S.J. who, like
Colin, had lived and worked as a missionary in the Philippines, and whose Historia de Mindanao
y Jolo was printed in Madrid in 1667, two years after the author's death and five years after
Colin's work was published. Combés History of Mindanao was also reissued 230 years
afterwards in a handsome edition edited by Wenceslao Retana assisted by Father Pastells. In
his account of Magellan's voyage, Combés gives a somewhat different version of the route
taken by the Discoverer.

Colin and Combés Compared. - It is to be noted that both Colin and Combés picture Magellan
as visiting both Butuan and Limasawa. In Colin's account, Magellan went first to Butuan, then to
Limasawa and from thence to Cebu. Combés, on the other hand, mentions two visits to
Limasawa: in his version, Magellan visits Limasawa first; from there he goes to Butuan; then he
returns to Limasawa and thence to Cebu.

Both Colin and Combés agree that it was from Limasawa and with the help of Limasawa's
chieftain that the Magellan expedition went to Cebu. Both Colin and Combés also agree that
Magellan arrived in Cebu on the 7th of April 1521: that is to say, on the Octave of Easter, or one
week after the first Mass which — in this tradition – was supposed to have been celebrated at
Butuan.

How then did the shift in opinion – from Butuan to Limasawa – come about? How was the
Butuan tradition - so well entrenched for three centuries — finally dislodged? Some recent
defenders of the Butuan tradition have blamed the shift of opinion on two Americans, namely
Emma Blair and James Alexander Robertson, whose 55-volume collection of documents on the
Philippine Islands was published in Cleveland from 1903 to 1909. But the “blame” (if blame it is)
does not rest alone upon Blair and Robertson. They indeed contributed enormously to the shift
in opinion but the man initially responsible for the shift seems to have been a Spanish Jesuit
scholar. Father Pablo Pastells S.J.

The shift in opinion from Butuan to Limasawa was due to a rediscovery and a more attentive
study of two primary sources on the subject: namely, Pigafetta 's account and Albo's log. What
the effect of that study was may be seen in the change in Pastell's thinking.

Limasawa

The Evidence For Limasawa

We now come to the evidence in favor of Limasawa. The evidence may be outlined as follows:
 1. The evidence of Albo's Log-Book

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.

Albo joined the Magellan expedition as a pilot (“contramaestre”) in Magellan's flagship

“Trinidad”. He was one of the eighteen survivors who returned with Sebastian Elcano on the
“Victoria" after having circumnavigated the world. Albo began keeping his own diary -- merely
only a log-book — on the voyage out, while they were sailing southward in the Atlantic along the
coast of South America, off Brazil. His account of their entry into Philippine waters (or, as it was
then called, the archipelago of San Lazaro)

The Evidence of Albo's Log-Book

The most complete account of the Magellan expedition is that by Antonio Pigafetta entitled
Primo viaggio intomo al mondo (First Voyage Around the World). Like Albo, he was a member of
the expedition and was therefore an eyewitness of the principal events which he describes,
including the first Mass in what is now known as the Philippine Archipelago, but which Magellan
called the Islands of Saint Lazarus. Of Pigafetta's work there are two excellent English
translations, one by Robertson (from the Italian) and another by Skelton (from the French).

In examining the evidence from Pigafetta, we shall consider five points: (a) Pigafetta's testimony
as regards the route taken by the expedition from the Pacific Ocean to Cebu; (b) The evidence
of Pigafetta's map; (c) The presence of two native kings; (d) The events of the seven days at the
island of “Mazaua “; (e) An argument from omission.

The Evidence from Pigafetta

There is confirmatory evidence from the documents of the Legazpi expedition, which sailed into
Philippine waters in 1565, forty-four years after Magellan. One of the places that Legazpi and
his pilots were anxious to visit was precisely Mazaua, and to this end they inquired about
“Mazaua” from Camotuan and his companions, natives of the village of Cabalian at the
southeastern end of the island of Leyte. Guided by these natives, the Legazpi ships rounded the
island of “Panae” (Panaon), which was separated from Leyte by a narrow strait, and anchored
off “Mazaua” — but they found the inhabitants to be hostile, apparently as a result of
Portuguese depredations that had occurred in the four-decade interval between the Legazpi and
the Magellan expeditions.

The Legazpi Expedition

The question may be asked: If “Mazaua” is the little island of Limasawa, why did Magellan go
there? Why go to an insignificant little island; why not instead to the larger islands? The answer
must be sought in geography. He was coasting southward down the eastern coast of Leyte
(Albo's “Seilani”; Pigafetta's "Ceylon") with Hibuson Island on his left. This took him down to the
southern tip of what looks like a part of Leyte but is really a separate island, the island of
Panaon. When his ships rounded the tip of Panaon, the wind was blowing westward from the
Pacific. It was late March: in March and April in this part of the Philippines, the east wind is
strong. It is what the people of Limasawa call the “Dumagsa”, the east wind. Sailing with the
wind, Magellan's vessels would find themselves going west or southwest, toward the island of
Limasawa. Having seen a light on the island one night, they dedded the following day to anchor
off it.

The Geography of “Mazaua"

 III. Evaluation/stand

Due to the evidences of the real eyewitness during the argued first mass in the Philippines. We
think that the argument backs as true site of the first mass.

It is the most complete and reliable account of Magellan expiditio into Philippine shore in 1521is
that of Antonio Pigafetta which is deemed as theonly credible primary source of reports on the
celebration of the first Christian mass.

Pigafetta’s Mazaua,it is an island lying off the southwestern tip of leyte, while masao is in
Butuan and it is not an island but a barangay of Butuan city located in the delta of the Agusan
River along the coast of northern Mindanao. The position of Mazaua, as plotted by Pigafetta
matched that of Limasawa.

Magellan’s fleet took a route from Hamonhon to Mazaua and Mazaua to Cebu that did not at
any time touch Butuan or any other part of Mindanao.

IV. Historical Importance

It will serve as historical landmark to the place where it is located.

Pride of every island to have a certain historical importance in the history. There will be
commemorations and events that will venerate the event. The site of the first mass serves a turn
back into time about how the Catholicism took place in the islands of the Philippines.

The catholicsm will be on it 500 years anniversary at the year 2020.

Butuan's importance is underlined by the fact that it was the first place in Mindanao where a
Christian mission was established. It was served, first by the Jesuits and later by the
Augustinian Recollects.

Thus, the importance of Butuan in the history of the Philippines is in no way dependent upon its
claim to have been the site of the first Mass in the Philippines. To reject that claim is in no way
to belittle Butuan's importance. Butuan deserves an honorable place in the study of Philippine
culture and history.

References:
[Link]
[Link]
Philippine History: Spaces for conflicts and controversies, Chapter 3 pg. 49-56