Site of the First Mass

1st Mass controversy:

Now, Southern Leyteños and the rest of the Filipino people could heave a sigh of relief
over the controversy surrounding the site of the First Mass which ushered in the
Christianization of the Philippines. The issue is resolved.

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. The finding was reached by the Gancayco Commission--composed of
retired Supreme Court Justice Emilio A. Gancayco as chair, lawyer Bartolome C.
Fernandez and Dr. Maria Luisa T. Camagay--which was created in May 1996 by the NHI
to resolve a very sensitive historical issue facing our country and our people.

It is the view of the panel that, upon a preponderance of evidence culled from the primary
sources, the first ever Christian Mass on Philippine soil on March 31, 1521 was celebrated
in the island of Limasawa south of Leyte, concluded the commission in its 24-page
decision. In its conclusion, the commission said the panel closes the presentation
confident that any and all lingering doubts regarding such historical detail are now put to
rest. Paraphrasing what the Bible proclaims, the truth about a bygone era in Philippine
history shall set us free. The Gancayo Commission submitted its findings to Samuel K.
Tan, chair and executive director of the NHI on March 20, 1998. But this finding was only
formally turned over to Limasawa officials on March 31, during the 478th anniversary of
the First Mass.

It was a poignant event for the spectators of the celebration when Violeta Barcelon
Omega, director of the Don Jose Ecleo Memorial Foundation College of Science and
Technology in Surigao del Norte, handed over the original NHI decision given to her by
Tan to Limasawa Mayor Albert Esclamado. Tan also formally announces through a press
statement that he has adopted the finding reached by the Gancayo Commission, to put
to a close the Limasawa-Butuan controversy.

Findings

The commission concluded that the First Mass was held in Limasawa after it found that:

⮚ The most complete and reliable account of the Magellan expedition into Philippine
shores in 1521 is that of Antonio Pigafetta which is deemed as the only credible primary
source of reports on the celebration of the first Christian Mass on Philippine soil.
⮚ James Robertson's English translation of the original Italian manuscript of
Pigaffeta's account is most reliable for being ''faithful'' to the original text as duly certified
by the University of the Philippines' Department of European Language.

⮚ 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.

⮚ Magellan's fleet took a route from Homonhon to Mazaua and from Mazaua to Cebu
that did not at any time touch Butuan or any other part of Mindanao. The docking facilities
at Limasawa did not pose any problem for Magellan's fleet which anchored near or at
some safe distance from the island of the eastern shore.

To the Gancayco Commission, ''History is both a useful and fascinating subject. As one
travels through time, one is bound to find it rich in stories. Every kind of testimony is drawn
upon from eyewitness accounts to statistical tables. Personal records, such as diaries,
can certainly tell more than the official documents. One of the great delights of time travel
is encountering the unfamiliar for that is what brings history to life. We use history, not to
tell us what happened or to explain the past, but make the past alive so that it can explain
us and make a future possible'', the commission said, quoting from Allan Bloom's The
Closing of the American Mind.

In writing and end to the controversy, the commission said it proceeded with utmost care.
It said that the conclusion was made to enlighten the current generation and remove all
confusion about where the First Mass was held in the Philippines.

Paraphrasing Adlai Stevenson's, ''We can chart our future clearly and wisely when we
know the path that has led to the present'', the panel said: ''The path is now conclusively
established to have begun at the island of Limasawa where the first ever Christian Mass
on Philippine soil was offered on March 31, 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan and his men.''

Proclamation of the national shrine

On June 19, 1960, Republic Act No. 2733, called the Limasawa Law, was enacted without
being signed by the President of the Philippines. The legislative fiat declared The site in
Magallanes, 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 birth of
Christianity in the Philippine.[8] Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa. In 1984
Imelda 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.[9]

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.".[10] Yet this has no reference at all to a Catholic mass being held on March
31, 1521.

Historical controversies

Bolinao

Odoric of Pordenone, an Italian and Franciscan friar and missionary explorer, is heartily
believed by many Pangasinenses to have celebrated the first mass in Pangasinan in
around 1324 that would have predated the mass held in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan,
which is generally regarded as the first mass in the Philippines. A marker in front of
Bolinao Church states that the first Mass on Philippine soil was celebrated in Bolinao Bay
in 1324 by a Franciscan missionary, Blessed Odorico. However, the National Historical
Institute led by its chair Ambeth Ocampo recognized the historical records of Limasawa
in Southern Leyte as the venue of the first Mass, held on March 31, 1521.

Masao

Other Filipino historians has long contested the idea of Limasawa as the site of the first
Catholic mass in the country. Historian Sonia Zaide identified Masao (also Mazaua) in
Butuan as the location of the first Christian mass. Basis of Zaide's claim is the diary of
Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of Magellan's voyage. In 1995 then Congresswoman Ching
Plaza of Agusan del Norte-Butuan City filed a bill in Congress contesting the Limasawa
hypothesis and asserting the "site of the first mass" was Butuan. The Philippine Congress
referred the matter to the National Historical Institute for it to study the issue and
recommend a historical finding. Then NHI chair Dr. Samuel K. Tan reaffirmed Limasawa
as the site of the first mass.

As recounted by Pigafetta in his chronicle of Magellan's expedition to the Philippine

islands starting March 16, 1521, the first Christian Mass celebrated on Philippine soil was
made in an island which he called ''Mazaua''. The precise identity and location of this
venue of the First Mass became the subject of writings of historians and scholars whose
differing interpretations of Pigafetta's account would eventually spawn lead to a
controversy. For three centuries, it was the prevailing belief that Pigafetta's Mazaua was
a place called Masao near Butuan City in Northern Mindanao. The Butuan belief persisted
from the 17th to the 19th century. Limasawa was identified as the most likely venue in
1894 with the publication of a manuscript of Pigafetta's account of Magellan's voyage--
the Ambrosian codex in Milan--in its Italian text.

This work written by Pigafetta was made available to scholars including American James
Alexander Robertson who translated into English the original text with the help of Emma
Blair. The translation was incorporated in Robertson's ''The Philippine Islands''. According
to Fr. Miguel A. Bernal, SJ, an author, the only versions of Pigafetta's account available
to previous scholars were ''summaries and garbled translations''. To understand why
Pigafetta's original text was not available to past scholars, Fr. Peter Schreurs, M.S.C.,
Ph.D., parish priest of Magallanes town where Butuan's Mazaua is located, said the
manuscript given to Charles V was never published and was considered lost.

Fr. Schreurs in his book ''The Search for Pigafetta's Mazaua'', said the other copy of the
book was given to the mother of the King of France. The said book was mentioned in
various reports between 1526 and 1534 when an abridged French version was produced
and translated into Italian. This was later used by authors and cartographers.

But the controversy did not stop there. In 1995, the Masao group through Butuan Rep.
Charito Plaza, initiated the filing of a bill, to ''Declare the site of Masao, Butuan City, as
the place where the first Easter Mass in the Philippines was held.'' The bill was not acted
upon. The bill, which aggravated the controversy, was obviously an attempt to repeal
Republic Act 2733, a law enacted in 1960, ''declaring the site in Magallanes, Limasawa
island in the province of Leyte, where the First Mass in the Philippines was held as a
national shrine''. It was in 1971 when residents and visitors saw the grandeur of the First
Mass celebration prepared by former President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda,
who is from Leyte. The celebration was the 450th anniversary.

Pedencio Olojan, 90, said he could not remember any activities at all related to the First
Mass. But he recalled that when he was 18 years old he was digging for treasure with
several other treasure hunters. He failed to find any treasure but a friend sold him an
artifact for P100. That was 81 years ago. Some of the treasures which his friend dug up
are now in a museum in Butuan City.

Deafening silence

With the wealthy Plaza clan backing the Masao claim, Southern Leyte could only answer
with a deafening silence. Lawyer Joaquin Chung Jr., whose research on the First Mass
brought him to Europe, blamed the past political leaders of Southern Leyte for not taking
up the cause of Limasawa while Plaza lambasted the Limasawa claim in the halls of
Congress.

Southern Leyte then belonged to Club 20, the term coined for the country's 20 poorest
provinces. But former Rep. Roger Mercado and Gov. Oscar Tan stood up for Limasawa
in 1996 when they prepared a feast to mark the 475th anniversary of the First Mass.
Frantic preparations were made to usher in VIP visitors and dignitaries who were
expected to attend the jubilee celebration. In the end, it was only Rhett Pelaez, then
presidential assistant for the Visayas, who came. Pelaez then declared: ''It is immaterial
whether the site of the First Mass was in Masao or Limasawa, what matters is we are
here celebrating.''

Victory day

But on March 31, Limasawa Island saw the arrival not only of mainland Leyte residents
but also of foreign dignitaries, led by Enrique Michel, Mexican ambassador to the
Philippines, to celebrate Limasawa's ''victory''. The 478th anniversary was a feast as the
province and Limasawa were celebrating not only the decision of NHI but also the
donation made by Rev. Vicente Dayagbil Sr., bishop of the Philippine Independent
Church, of the lot where the First Mass Shrine now sits.

Leyteños also celebrated the restoration of the shrine's chapel, courtesy of the Maasin
Knight of Columbus and the pledges made by the governments of Spain and Portugal to
help finance the construction of a 50-foot monument of the Risen Christ at the highest
point of the island to commemorate the First Mass and the first recorded meeting between
Eastern and Western cultures.

For Gov. Rosette Yñiguez-Lerias, the 478th celebration was also the start of the social,
educational and economic exchanges of East and West.

Among these are the long historical tradition of over 400 years observed by the people of
Butuan, especially in the present municipality of Magallanes, Agusan del Norte; a
commemorate marker erected in the island of Buag, Magallanes, in 1972 by Gov. Jose
Maria Carvallo of the district/province of Surigao of which Butuan and Agusan were then
under its jurisdiction; vast archeological artifacts displayed in museums and in private
collections, consisting of porcelain, ceramics and Chinaware in three areas of Agusan del
Norte; up to today, the abundance of gold some as big as chickens eggs and mined in
the coastal towns of Malimono and its barangay Masgad on the western coast of Surigao
del Norte, the presence of Balanghai or Butuan boats in Butuan remnants of which have
been found in the vicinity of Masao-Suatan; the Pigafetta map showing Mazzaua as a big
island at the south of the islands of Bohol and Leyte, with details showing indication of
the three settlements of Butuan, Calaghan, and Mazzaua along the same coastline, and
at the same time showing the approximate site of the Easter Day mass.

Finally, the Declaration cites as a compelling reason the admission later by Dr. Gregorio
Zaide, noted Filipino historian, that he made a mistake in choosing Limasawa. His mistake
was confirmed by his daughter Dr. Sonia Zaide. Dr. Rolando Borrinaga, a staunch
Limasawa proponent, also admitted later that he made a mistake saying the site should
be in Barangay Triana instead of Magallanes in Limasawa where the shrine is located
and the cross planted on a promontory there.

In view of the foregoing facts, the signers of the Surigao Declaration on the First Easter
Mass firmly resolve to request the NHI/NHCP to reopen the Limasawa vs. Butuan
discourse and revisit the whole historical narrative on the matter.