On 2021, the Philippines will be celebrating the 500th year anniversary of the First Mass. However, up to this point, the issue whether the site of the First Mass in the Philippines was held in Limawasa, Southern Leyte or in Masao, Butuan City is still debatable. The Philippine government officially recognizes Limasawa though.
In this second assignment, do some research works over the internet on the issue. After weighing the reasons of both perspectives, make your own stand. You need to justify your position. Cite some groups, organizations, scholars, historians, etc who are in favor of the perspective you have chosen.
Note: Your answer should contain at least 500 words.
Deadline of Submission: 31 August 2010, 11:59PM
55 comments:
The exact location of the first mass has been disputed for decades, primarily between two locations: Limasawa, and Masao, Butuan.
The popular view, The first Catholic mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa, an island town of Southern Leyte. It is false. All the five eyewitness accounts of Magellan's voyage--by Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte--that contain references to a port named Mazaua, do not mention any island named Limasawa. There is no Philippine language that has that word. In fact, the placename "Limasawa" is an invention of Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. Combés published in 1667 a book on evangelization of Mindanao. The story that comes from Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J., that contains no reference at all to a Catholic mass being held on March 31, 1521. Indeed, his "Limassaua", was an invention, and it was meant to signify that the southern Leyte isle was not the "Mazaua" in the historical account of Magellan's voyage of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas which Combés dismissed as untrue in favor of the garbled account of Giovanni Battista Ramusio who wrote the place of anchorage from March 31-April 4, 1521 was Butuan not Mazaua. Combés, it should be pointed out, had not read a single firsthand or eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage. He was totally ignorant of the true story of the Mazaua episode. In fact, his invention, "Limasawa", was meant to repudiate the idea the anchorage was Magellan's Mazaua since he thought it was "Buthuan" as Ramusio said; and "Limasawa" directly negates any idea of an Easter mass or whatever mass having been held on March 31, 1521. Eventually, those who're engaged in this controversy do not take the pains to trace the word "Limasawa" to its very beginning, 1667 when it was first invented by Combés who knew nothing about Mazaua, and what he knew of it was absolutely wrong. And they should indeed trace the idea Limasaw=Mazaua to Carlo Amoretti who was ignorant of what Combés's Limasawa was.
However, 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. Mr. Hontiveros added, they may have been failed in their effort to pave way in the amendment of the law, but they were victorious in convincing majority of the historians that indeed, the First Mass was held in Masao, Butuan, 489 years ago today. Other historians, like then National Historical Institute Chairman Esteban A. de Ocampo and Far Eastern University Professor Celedonio O. Resurrecion also acknolwedged the mistake. Until today According to some historians,In the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, the spot of the first mass was believed to be Masao, Butuan, with even a marker commemorating the event installed there in 1872. Butuan still separately commemorates the anniversary of the first mass.
Ronaldo L. dela Peña
I-BSCS
Philippine History with Politics and Governance(9:00am-12:00nn)
ASSIGNMENT NO. 2
the site of the First Mass in the Philippines was held in Limawasa, Southern Leyte
Unlike the 500th Feast of Santo Niño which will be observed for sure in Cebu City, the First Mass celebration will divide the honored guests, visitors and tourists from many foreign countries. Thousands and thousands of the people will travel by pump-boats and chartered ships to Limasawa, an island town in Southern Leyte, and thousands will also travel by cars, trucks, buses, and other land transportation to Masao, the old name of Mazaua, Butuan City in Mindanao.
Just as most of the people in the tropical country of 7,107 islands are disunited as a government, there are four communities, islands or sites in which the residents and their supporters are claiming to be the original site of the "First Mass" in the Philippines held in 1521.
The most famous is Limasawa Island, an island town in Southern Leyte, which the Philippine Government recognizes as the actual site of the "First Mass." The powerful Roman Catholic Church also recognizes Limasawa Island as the site where Magellan and his crew landed and held the "First Mass." Furthermore, the Embassy of Portugal in Metro Manila recognizes Limasawa as the "Mazzaua" which Pigafetta wrote about as the island where Magellan and his troops observed the "First Mass" or introduced Christianity to the island's inhabitants.
sir pasensya na po napadami ng words ang nailagay q.sir uulitin q na lang po ulit may extra time pa naman po aq para d2.salamat po.
Haidelyn A. Mori Friday 10:30-1:30
f0r me sir i c0nfirm that the first mass was held at limasawa was 0n easter sunday March 31 1521 in an is named mazaua by eyewitness Ant0ni0 pigaffetta.Gines de Mafra.Francisc0 alb0 the gen0ese pil0t and Martin de Ayam0nte at a l0cati0n t0day universally and mistakenly believed t0 be limasawa a t0wn islet t0 the tip 0f s0uthern leyte pr0vince and is said t0 be the birthplace 0f r0man cath0licism in the c0untry..0n march 31 1521 an easter sunday Magellan 0rdered a mass t0 be celebrated which was 0fficiated by friar Pedr0 Valderama the andalusi0n chaplain 0f the flect the 0nly priest then.the 0ther priest the french Bernard Calmette(Bernard0 Calmeta]had been mar00ned at patag0nia with Cartagena f0r being implicated in the mutiny at San Julian c0nducted near the sh0res 0f the island.the h0ly first mass marked the birth 0f r0man cath0licism in the "philippines"until the expediti0n Ruy L0pez Villal0b0s in 1543.t0 attend the mass am0ng 0ther Mazaua inhabitants t0gether with visit0rs fr0m butuan wh0 came with the ent0urage 0f RaJah c0lamb0.the king 0f butuan...the hist0rical event viewed largerly in its religi0us c0ntext as a fleeting epis0de 0f the 1081-day circumnavigati0n 0f the w0rld came t0 pass when p0rtuguese navigat0r Ferdinand Magellan and his armada de M0lucca 0f three sailing ships landed in the western p0rt 0f the island 0f Mazaua.
G0D BLESS........
Assignment in Philippine History and politics Governance
Tue.9:00-12:00
Elvie T. Rebutazo
The exact location of the first mass been disputes for decades primary between two locations;Limasawa and Masao Butuan in the 17th to 19th centuries, the spot of first mass was believed to be Masao Butuan.The claim was founded on two workers the Evangelista of Francisco Colin in Madrid in 1663,and the historian de Mindanao.
The first mass of the Philippines was held on March 1521 on the island of Limasawa,Southern Leyte by the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, also the first Baptism in the country it marked the start of centuries of catholic influence,making the Philippines the only predominantly Roman Catholic.on March 1521,Magellan ordered the expedition chaplain, Pedro de Valderrama, to celebrate Easter Sunday mass, It was only a fewdays, after the mood compact between Magellan and Rajah Kolambu of Leyte, because of this alliance the rajah allowed Magellan and his men to come ashore to celebrate mass.Rajah Kolambu was also invited to the mass along with rajah Siagu of Butuan, his brother in-law.
I convinced that the first mass held on Limasawa not in Butuan because the Combes did not mention the first mass at all in his account, Colin claims that is was held in Masao, Combes only notes that the planting of the cross which was done at the same time as the mass, was done in Masao, and the opinion started to favor the Limasawa claim citing evidence such as the maps made by Pigafetta.
jackelyn uba
The island, or more precisely, Mazaua, not Limasawa, was first visited by foreigners with the arrival of Chinese and perhaps Arabic tradesmen. On March 28, 1521, Antonio Pigafetta, diarist of Magellan's expedition, and Kolambu, King of Butuan was visited by Magellan and his fleet of three ships, The two leaders maintained very amicable relations, becoming casicasi or blood-brothers on Good Friday, 29 March 1521, second day of Magellan's stay at Mazaua.[3] Thus, Limasawa is famously referred to as "site of the First mass in the Philippines." Primary and secondary sources point to Mazaua, not Limasawa and not Butuan, as the port where an Easter Sunday mass was held on March 31, 152.categories of Mazaua as described and explained in the eyewitness chronicles of Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo,
The Limasawa story was written by a Jesuit missionary, Fr. Francisco Combés, who had not read a single primary account. His 3-paragraph story of the Mazaua episode does not refer to any kind of mass having been held anywhere in the Visayas or Mindanao. His Limasawa also is not the port where Magellan and his fleet anchored from March 28 to April 4, 1521.
Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan. City of Butuan is the regional center of the Caraga Region in the Philippines. It is located at the northeastern part of Agusan Valley Mindanao, sprawling across the Agusan River. It is bounded to the north, west and south by Agusan del Norte, to the east by Agusan del Sur and to the northwest by Butuan Bay. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 298,378 people.[1]
The name "Butuan" is believed to have originated from the sour fruit "Batuan". Other etymology sources say that it comes from a certain "Datu Buntuan", a chieftain who once ruled over Butuan.
It was the capital of Agusan del Norte until 2000 when Republic Act 8811 mandated the transfer of the capital to Cabadbaran CityAs early as the 10th century, people from Butuan had already established trading relations with the Kingdom of Champa (now southern Vietnam) and Srivijaya empire of Java.By the 11th century, Butuan was the center of trade and commerce in the Philippines and was actually the location of the prehispanic Indianized Kingdom of Butuan. The evidence to prove this fact is the discovery of 9 balanghai (the Butuan Boat) and other archaeological find in the vicinities of Butuan City, particularly in Ambangan, Libertad near the old El Rio de Butuan and Masao River.
During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II, Butuan was razed to the ground when the guerrilla forces attacked the enemy garrison during the middle of 1943. In 1945, entered of the Philippine Commonwealth troops in Butuan together with the recognized guerrillas attacked the Japanese forces during the Battle of Agusan. On October 20, 1948, still recovering from the war, the entire municipality was ruined by a fire.
The boom of the logging industry during the 1950s up the middle of 1970s has made Butuan the "Timber City of the South". The outcome of which was the influx of business and fortune seekers from other provinces. On August 2, 1950, Butuan became a city by virtue of Republic Act No. 523 otherwise known as the City Charter of Butuan.
HULIPAS, MA. GENEVENE B. BEED tuesday 9-12
The site of the first Mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa, Southern Leyte
In the island of Mazua not limasawa the first visited of the chinese and Arabic tradesmen.
On March 28,1521 the Mazua's raia Siaia as named butuan.In Antonio Pigafetta one of the diarist of Magellan's and Kolumbo king of butuan. and was visited by Magellan and his three ships through to the route in spice islands.In the site of the First Mass in the philippines the famously in the Limasawa,the primary and secondary point in the limasawa and not to butuan. and some geologic, geographic, histographic are formly categories in the chronicles. Antonio Pigafetta and Gines de Mafra. The Limasawa story by the Jesuit missionary by Fr. Francisco Combes the story there are in the mass in visayas and mindanao.and also they the novely of the spanish in limasawa.The powerful chaplain and the solemnity of the cross eracted that shown the spaniards for the natives.The notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggest by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port.
Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan.and decieve the the price of limasawa through passing bohol and leyte close in camotes islands.The notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggested by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port.
Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan.
The notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggested by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port.
Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan
The notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggested by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port.
Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan.
Aguelo, Ralyn Jean P.
BSIT- 1st yr.
Butuan City to Re-enact First Mass that Happens 488 Years Ago on March 31
March 26, 2009
BUTUAN CITY- All is set for Butuan City ’s re-enactment of the First Catholic Mass in Asia’s only Christian country, the Philippines that happened 488 years ago on March 31, local historians Greg Hontiveros and Fr. Joesilo Amalia said.
The re-enactment will be celebrated in an all Latin language mass called “Tridentine Mass” by Fr. Joesilo Amalia to be held at present day Buod Promentory in Barangay Pinamangculan believed to be the original site of the First Catholic Mass in the Philippines.
“Since 1664, the Jesuits through Jesuit priest Fr. Francisco Colim have been recognizing Butuan’s Mazaua as the site of the first mass unfortunately it was another Jesuit priest by the name of Fr. Pablo Pastells in 1900 changed the site from Mazaua in Butuan to Limasawa in Southern Leyte”, local historian Greg Hontiveros said.
“But technically it was not submitted to the board of directors of the National Historical Commission after new evidences continued to pour in that indeed Butuan’s Mazaua not Limasawa in Leyte is the real first mass site”, Hontiveros added.
In 1997, the case was re-opened and a new fact finding body was formed headed by Dr. Benito Legarda paving the way for Butuan City to further submit voluminous evidences to its original claims.
Docallos
Leah
BSIT
In my case I agreed to Father Colin who wrote that it was in Limasawa where the first mass in the Philippines was officiated.Pursuant to Republic Act. no 2733 dated June 19,1960 barangay Malallanes, Limasawa , Southern Leyte is the site of the Chirtain mass in the Philippines. Aside from that the National Historical Institute(NHI) sponsored a workshop for historians to determined the site of the first mess in the Philippines. According to their findings and evidence presented by Carlo Amoretti said that Mazaua where in Maggellan landed in 1521 and the island of Limasawa written by Father Francisco Combes are one and the same.This idea was supported by Father Pablo Pastells,Pardo de Tavera, Jaime de Veyra,and James Robertson.Dr. Sonia M. Zaida Presented the evidence that the first mass in Masao how can I believe her she was not able to present the exact date.
And from Limasawa to Cebu the distance is only 80 miles while the distance from from Mazaua according to Pigafetta was 140 miles too far.From Ladrones island,Magellans fleet went on their journey westward to avoid the Northeast monsoon and from Paaon, Limasawa is in the Northwest direction according to Majra,Mazaua has a circumference of 3-4 leagues, equivalent to 9-12 n.n. while Limasawa has a circumference of 2.0313 n.n.
At the dawn of Saturday,on March 16,1521 , the saw the towering heights of Samar and named the island of Islas de San Lazaro and Samar is just near in Southern Leyte where in the first Christian mass in the Philippines so my answer is LIMASAWA.
Gela Faith N.Cortado BSA1 Philippine History Mr.Raquel Aug.29,2010
"The First Mass In The Philippines"
For me,according to my research in the internet that:"The first mass in the Philippines was on Eastern Sunday,March 31,1521,in an island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta,Gines de Mafra,Francisco Albo,the Genoese pilot,and Martin de Ayamonte,at a location today universally-and mistakenly-believed to be Limasawa,a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province,and is said to be birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country."
For me,most of us,really believes that Limasawa is the part of our Philippine History.It became so very popular to us,because in our some specific study.We have been learned that from the beginning of my elementary days until now that I am a particular college student,have been learned in our social studies that Limasawa is the part of Magellan's expedition.Ferdinand Magellan had makes friends of Raha Humabon and Raha Siagu.Magellan had built a memorable cross to us to remember that Magellan had been colonize our country.It was called the "Island of San Lazaro".These is the first and second mass had been held and traditionally baptized as a Roman Catholic.
Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage.It is not found in any language of the Philippines.It is a neologism,an invention.The word"Limasawa" is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate,which describes Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters.Jacques N. Bellin asserted both Limasawa and Mazaua are in Pigafetta's latitude.Scholars assume that Brito's source was the Genoese pilot,a belief not supported by concrete evidence but is nevertheless unchallenged.
In the Philippines,this dictum was altered by historians who rephrased Amoretti's assertion by removing the name"Mazaua" and replacing it with the phrase"site of the first mass".Carlo Amoretti's authorship is also omitted so that in historical studies on the Mazaua incident Amoretti is unsung,and unhonoured dictum.This question is a fallacious dilemna.Mazaua is being equated with an island without anchorage.Limasawa;just as erroneous is its being equated with Butuan that is not an island.Mazaua was an island with an excellent harbor.Apropos to anchorage'the Coast Pilot of 1927 published by the United States Coast and Geodetic survey states,"Limasawa is fringed by a narrow,steep to reef off which the water is too deep to afford good anchorage for large vessels."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.It will be seen here that up to this point,no one save historian William Henry Scott had suspected the Butuan notion came from the garbled translation of Pigafetta by Giovanni Battista Ramusio.
QUINCESS SIASICO
BSBA F-10:30-1:30PM
It was Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521, when the first Mass in the Philippines was celebrated by Pedro Valderama, a priest with the Magellan expedition in Limasawa, an islet at the southern tip of Leyte del Sur. The most famous is Limasawa Island, an island town in Southern Leyte, which the Philippine Government recognizes as the actual site of the "First Mass." The powerful Roman Catholic Church also recognizes Limasawa Island as the site where Magellan and his crew landed and held the "First Mass." Furthermore, the Embassy of Portugal in Metro Manila recognizes Limasawa as the "Mazzaua" which Pigafetta wrote about as the island where Magellan and his troops observed the "First Mass" or introduced Christianity to the island's inhabitants.The main reason Magellan and his troops sailed toward and anchored in Limasawa Island in the first place was that at nighttime, while they were in the vicinity or southernmost tip off Panaon Island and coming from 8 days of rest and replenishment in Homonhon Island, they SAW A FIRE ON AN ISLAND and headed towards it. From the distance off south of Panaon Island, there was no way that Magellan and his men could have seen the fire as far as Mazaua, Butuan in Mindanao which was and is hidden to the south-southeast. (Please use Google Earth and find for yourself how difficult it was for Magellan and his crew to see Mazaua, Butuan from the vicinity of southeastern coast of Panaon Island and in line of sight WEST to Limasawa Island.) However, since Magellan and his men were always searching for an opening towards the WEST which incidentally was the direction of the fire on an island, they headed towards Limasawa Island."Magellan made it clear that he needed provisions for his ships. He also stated, however, that he had no intention of stripping Limasawa bare but would seek a bigger island, one with ample food resources. After an evening banquet on the shore, the rajahs [the one in Mazzaua and the other from Butuan] offered Magellan the services of pilots to guide him to Cebu, where he might be able to obtain his supplies. The captain-general accepted and 'promised to treat them like himself, and that he would leave one of his men as a hostage.' But Rajah Calambu [Ka Lambu] waved this suggestion aside: 'For love of him he wished to go himself to guide him to those ports and be his pilot,' wrote Pigafetta, if Magellan would wait two days until the rajah had managed to harvest his rice. Magellan agreed and even sent some of his own men to help with the harvest."According to the pro-Mazaua supporters, Limasawa is too small an island to have rice fields, therefore it was in Mazaua, Butuan that the "First Mass" was held. (In March 1521 in Limasawa Island, it was possible that the island had more vegetation and forestry which collected ample rainfall. The natives could have used the rice-terraces system which their ancestors learned from Indonesia.) But, why did Magellan go as far as Cebu to get provisions at the same time frame when supposedly Mazaua, the "Kingdom of Butuan," had the abundant resources? Limasawa Island is 50% nearer to Cebu City and Mactan (where Magellan was killed) than Mazaua is to the Philippines' oldest city. Bigger than Limasawa, Mazaua is attached to Mindanao. But, some of them said that it used to be an island which no Nobel Prize-winning scientist has declared that it was an island!
Jazzen C. Alas
BSIT-I Tuesday 9-12nn
Two incidents and a new historiographical insight mark the continuing search for Magellan's lost port, Mazaua. On November 29, 2001 geomorphologist Dr. Ricarte S. Javelosa and geologist Fred Carpio made probings in the Chinese cemetery in Bancasi (the side going towards Mt. Mayapay) in Butuan City and discovered the soil there is limestone. That alone establishes the Pinamanculan "isle" that he earlier hypothesized to be definitely an isle. That same week, Ms. Mary Jane Louise Bolunia (who dug up a bronze pestle of indeterminate provenance in May 30, 2001) dug up pre-Hispanic bones also in Pinamanculan, further strengthening the finding of Javelosa earlier that Pinamanculan is one of the oldest geological structures in Butuan. The limestone discovery has prompted Dr. Javelosa to rethink many of the things he had assumed which now turns out incorrect. Geologically speaking, according to Dr. Javelosa, even today Pinamanculan is "detached" from mainland Butuan because of creeks and other waterways that completely surround it. The coconut grooves that he earlier thought indicated solid ground now turns out to be alluvial sedimentations. He hypothesizes that the shoreline of Butuan was way further inland of present-day Butuan. He is convinced Pinamanculan was under sea water or at least parts were brackish water. All that Dr. Javelosa's new findings tell us is that Pinamanculan was indeed an isle. It does not in any way tell us it is Mazaua. Only authentic remains of the 1521 Magellan visit and the 1543 Mafra second visit will prove that. In other words, archaeological diggings will be the next major step that alone will prove if Pinamanculan was Mazaua. The bronze pestle Bolunia discovered is at least tantalizing. We know it is not the item brought by the Magellan expedition. The fleet had one and only one pestle and it was brass. The pestle is approximately 18 cm or just a little over 7 inches. Its specific gravity is 7.37 g/ml. Its weight is 408.51 grams (using analytical balance). Was it Mafra's? How old was it? Who made it? Was it European? If European, what, Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish? If not, what, Chinese? A well-funded study would have tried to determine the age of the artifact by analyzing associated materials that can be carbon-dated. There are suggestions the artifact is 15th or 16th or 17th century material because of the Ming shards/sherds just a few centimeters above it. It is ironic that no one asks if an authentic remains of the Magellan and Mafra expedition has been found in Limasawa. Now as for the historiographical insight. How did we come to the notion Mazaua is in today's Butuan? Here is how we arrived at that conclusion. Mafra said that Mazaua was south of 1521 (please remember that he is talking of what he knew then at that time) Butuan 15 leguas away. There are at least 28 values to the legua. How do we know which of the 28 Mafra used. We know he is Spanish, so very likely he used the Spanish legua which is 3 nautical miles to one. We will find confirmation of what he used only after we are able to know for sure where Butuan was and where was Mazaua was. So where was Butuan of 1521? We shall be able to locate 1521 Butuan by the latitude of Mazaua.
The first mass was been disputed for a long time with two locations namely Limasawa and Masao, Butuan. It has been clearly an issue for so many years before the researchers and historians came up with the solution of putting Limasawa to be the location held of the first mass.
I would like to support Masao, Butuan for having its evidence to be the location of the first mass, there was even a marker commemorating the said event way back in year 1872. This was founded to be supported by the works of Labor evangelica of Francisco Colin, S.J.., which was published in Madrid in the year of 1663 and the Historia de Mindanao y Jolo by Francisco Combes also published in the same country in the year of 1667 although Combes did not mention the first mass at all. Later historians until the nineteenth century acknowledge Masao, Butuan as the first location of the said event.
It was until the publication of the work of Mr. Antonio Pigafetta in the Ambrosian Codex in the year of 1894 favoring the location of Limasawa. With his works containing the map, geographical description of the island and the Algo logbook he later convinces the next generation of historians such as Trindad Pardo de Tavera, Pablo Pastells S.J. and more to support the claim of the Limasawa to be the first location of the said mass.
However there are still some who doesn’t seem to be favor of Limasawa and later research on their own. Independent scholar Vicente C. De Jesus said that the historians don’t consider the statement in account of Gines de Mafra, one of the voyagers, which supports the Masao, Butuan as the first location. And De Jesus said that some parts on the work of Pigafetta, the Ambrosian Codex was mistranslated.
Even Gregorio Zaide who originally supported Limasawa’s claim said that “It is high time for contemporary historians and the Philippine government to correct their mistake and accept that the first Christian mass was celebrated in Masao, Butuan, Agusan del Norte and not in Limasawa, Leyte, on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521.”
In the later works of the historians like National Historical Institute chairman Esteban A. de Ocampo and Far Eastern University Professor Celedonio O. Resurrecion also acknowledge their mistake on Masao, Butuan.
In some aspect the First Mass in Limasawa came in 1965 and is currently displayed in National Museum made by Carlos ‘Botong’ Francisco which signifies their support in Limasawa. But national Artist Fernando Amorsolo also had a work based on the first mass entitled “The First Baptism.” The oil on canvas piece, sometimes called “The First Mass,” is believed to be painted between 1955 to 1960 and was commissioned by the Cebu High School. It is now part of the permanent collection of the Ayala Museum.
According to Pigafetta's account, Magellan “threw much rose muscat water over those two kings,” largely interpreted as the baptism of the two rajahs. The two rajahs then participated in the mass, kissing the cross in the same way as the members of the expedition did, and receiving communion. After the mass, Magellan asked that a cross be installed at the highest peak, explaining that the cross would defend them from harm. To this the two rajahs agreed, and the cross was set up on two hills on the western side of Limasawa.
The above statement is enough to make me settle my mind that the location of the mass was in Masao, Butuan despite the fact that they set up the cross in the western side of Limasawa due to the request of Magellan that they should put it on the highest peak not clearly saying that the highest peak must be near the first location of the mass.
Marynel Lopo
Bshrm II
History
Friday 10:30-1:30
Fourteen years into the future, a very important event will be celebrated in the Philippines. On March 31, 2021, perhaps over 95 million Filipinos will be celebrating, God willing, the 500th Anniversary of the First Mass which Ferdinand Magellan introduced in the only Asian country which resulted in 83% Roman Catholics and 9 to 10% Protestants of the present population.
Unlike the 500th Feast of Santo Niño which will be observed for sure in Cebu City, the First Mass celebration will divide the honored guests, visitors and tourists from many foreign countries. Thousands and thousands of the people will travel by pump-boats and chartered ships to Limasawa, an island town in Southern Leyte, and thousands will also travel by cars, trucks, buses, and other land transportation to Masao, the old name of Mazaua, Butuan City in Mindanao.
The Filipinos, particularly those in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte and Limasawa, Southern Leyte will probably be still disunited before, on the anniversary date, and after the 500th Anniversary celebration in the year 2021 of the First Mass in the Philippines. Unless the experts of Antonio Pigafetta's original Italian diary, journal or logbook regarding Magellan's landings and the First Mass on Easter issues, in addition to the Portuguese and Spanish governments' official statements on Limasawa Island as the original site, would come to the aid of the National Historical Institute, they will have two different brochures for the tourists and visitors to the First Mass historical landmark: one in Limasawa, Southern Leyte and the other one in Mazaua, Butuan City. For the past centuries, innumerable numbers of Filipinos including the top experts in education, history, religion, politics, and other subjects are still debating as to the exact location of the First Mass in the Philippines, which occurred on March 31, 1521. Is it Limasawa or Mazaua? Nevertheless, Columbus was not the first European to introduce Christianity or the "First Mass" in America. The Orthodox Christians from Scandinavia introduced Christianity to America over 1000 years ago! "However we may look at it, the fact is that the first Christians in North America came from Scandinavia at a time when Scandinavian Christians were an integral part of Orthodox Christendom... It is perhaps not idle speculation to wonder what might have been had these early Scandinavians settled in large numbers in North America. We can suppose that together with their priests and bishops they would gradually have moved further south towards more favorable climes, converting more native Americans along their way. Perhaps Christopher Columbus himself would have found here an already ancient native Orthodox Christian civilization, an Orthodox America. But history took a different turn. And so it is up to us to take up the mission begun in this land by Leif Ericsson and his Orthodox descendents."
Adelita S. Aying
BSIT
The group of Magellan rounded the Southern tip,on the night of March 28 they saw a bonfire at a nearby island and they headed towards it. There was the limasawa island in the Southern tip of leyte. Magellan was greeted officially by nine men who were joyful of their arrival.
The first mass in the philippines was an Easter Sunday March 31,1521 in an island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Ppigafteta,Gines de Mafra ,Francisco Albo the Genoese pilot and Martin de Ayamonte at a location today.universally and mistakenly believed to be limasawa, a town province and it said to be the birth place of Roman Catholicism in the country.
Magellan ordered a mass to be celebrated which was officiated by Friar Pedro Valderrama the Andalusion chaplain of the fleet the only priest.hereby declared a national shrine to commemorate the birth of Christianity in the philippines,unknown to the lawmakers the basis of the law was Amorettis equating Pegafteta Mazaua with Combes ''limasawa'' which four years earlier Colin called''Dimasua'' expressly to signify it is not Mazaua.
The island of cebu was mentioned he leave limasawa on april 4 but three days latter. he extered the narrow sea between Mactan and cebu.Father de valderama erected and blessed the Holy cross in the middle of their settlement.now these time I'know that where is the first mass held.
shedrick a. dewara
bshrm
Almost 500 years ago, the first Catholic Mass was held in the island of Limasawa in Southern Leyte. The exact date according to the chronicles of Pigafetta was March 31, 1521. Just like any event in Philippine history, the location of the first mass was hounded by controversy. Another area claimed that their town was the location of the first mass and not Limasawa. The National Historical Institute finally settled the issue in 1998 when it recognized Limasawa as the site of the first mass in the Philippines.
A week ago, a friend of mine invited me to visit his hometown in Southern Leyte. The hometown: Limasawa. As a graduate of history, I became excited. Not only would this trip be my first visit to Eastern Visayas but it would also mean that I will get to visit the site of the first mass in our country. Imagine, We’ve been taught since elementary that the first mass happened in Limasawa and for the first time, I will get to visit it! Yay! Im sure very few Filipinos have been to this place. And lucky me, a friend of mine actually hails from the said island.
life in limasawa:
People in Limasawa live a very simple life. Most of the people are fishermen. They earn their living by selling fish and other seafoods to businessmen from Cebu and Manila. Food is always fresh in the island. Electricity is only available from 5pm to 1am. Life is not that complicated in this historical town. People are very hardworking and friendly.
Matiga Beryl T.
BSCS
All the five eyewitness accounts of Magellan's voyage--by Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte--that contain references to a port named Mazaua, do not mention any island named Limasawa. There is no Philippine language that has that word.
In fact, the placename "Limasawa" is an invention of Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. Combés published in 1667 a book on evangelization of Mindanao. In his story he narrates the sojourn of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in Philippine waters. He states the fleet went to Butuan where a cross was planted on March 31, 1521. He mentions no mass held on that day.
In fact his Limasawa is not the Mazaua of Magellan. It is the isle Gatighan which is found at 10 degrees North latitude. In the story and map of Antonio Pigafetta, it is the waystation where the Armada de Molucca hove to late in the afternoon of April 4, 1521 where they caught one bat which they ate. Gatighan, like Limasawa, did not afford any anchorage.
It will be recalled Fr. Combés had no knowledge of Mazaua that was correct and factual. He in fact dismissed the account of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas who said the island-port was named Mazaua. Instead Combés opted for the garbled story by Giovanni Battista Ramusio who said the port was Butuan. Combés also dismissed the name given four years earlier by Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., for the same island. Colín's name for Pigafetta's Gatighan was "Dimasawa," an invented word, which was to signify it is not the Mazaua of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas where an Easter mass was held. Colín and Combés both adopted the story--garbled and awfully mistaken--of Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island-port where a mass was held was Butuan.
If Limasawa and Dimasawa are misnomers for Pigafetta's Gatighan, who then said that Limasawa and Mazaua are one and the same?
The man who said Combés's Limasawa is Magellan's Mazaua was Carlo Amoretti who had not only not read Combés but had not read a single primary account of Magellan's voyage except the Italian manuscript of Antonio Pigafetta. He certainly did not read Ginés de Mafra's account which is the most authoritative on Mazaua. Ginés de Mafra was the only crewmember of the fleet who was able to return to Mazaua, in 1543, and stayed there for about six (6) months. He was part of the expedition under Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. His testimony about the port is precise. In any case, Carlo Amoretti said in his edition of the Italian Pigafetta which he published in 1800 that Limasawa may be the island named Limasawa in the map of Jacques N. Bellin and that both are found in latitude 9 degrees and 40 minutes as located by Pigafetta. What he did not know was that Limasawa is in 9 deg. 56 minutes North, and there are three readings for Mazaua: Pigafetta's, Albo's 9 degrees and 20 minutes North, and The Genoese Pilot's 9 degrees North.
What is most telling is the fact that Limasawa, as stated by the Coast Pilot, has no anchorage. Mazaua had an excellent harbor. Philippine historians and historiographers who have entered the discussion on Mazaua are not navigation historians and therefore this technicality has not registered on them.
It is lamentable that those who're engaged in this controversy do not take the pains to trace the word "Limasawa" to its very beginning, 1667 when it was first invented by Combés who knew nothing about Mazaua, and what he knew of it was absolutely wrong. And they should indeed trace the idea Limasaw=Mazaua to Carlo Amoretti who was ignorant of what Combés's Limasawa was.
Vanessa Javier BS IT
First mass
On March 31, 1521, an Easter Sunday, Magellan ordered a mass to be celebrated which was officiated by Friar Pedro Valderrama, the Andalusion chaplain of the fleet, the only priest then. The other priest, the French Bernard Calmette (Bernardo Calmeta) had been marooned at Patagonia with Juan de Cartagena for being implicated in the mutiny at San Julian. 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 Mazaua inhabitants, together with visitors from Butuan who came with the entourage of Rajah Colambu, king of Butuan.Magellan and his Armada found ready anchorage at Mazaua. So did Ginés de Mafra and his 90+ crewmates. So did Bernardo de la Torre and his men in April of 1544. So did Garcia Escalante de Alvarado in October 1544.
Carlo Amoretti was a conservator at the Ambrosiana Library at Milan where he discovered the lost Italian manuscript of Pigafetta in 1798. Amoretti lost no time transcribing the codex. Amoretti, in a footnote, said Magellan's Mazaua may be the "Limasava" found in the map of the Philippines by Jacques N. Bellin. He asserted both Limasawa and Mazaua are in Pigafetta's latitude 9° 40' North.[5] This is patently wrong. Limasawa is at 9° 56 minutes N; while Mazaua was spotted at three different latitudes, Pigafetta's 9° 40' North, at Francisco Albo's 9° 20' North, and The Genoese Pilot's 9° North. A second-hand source, Antonio de Brito, the Portuguese squadron leader who seized flagship Trinidad at Amboina, wrote a report to the Portuguese king that Mazaua was at 9° North, information derived from captured documents. Scholars assume Brito's source was The Genoese Pilot, a belief not supported by concrete evidence but is nevertheless unchallenged.
n visit was only for 7 days. Ginés de Mafra was part of the expedition under the command of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. In his testimony, de Mafra said the port of Mazaua was west of the island, This contradicts the now-popular belief it was east, as affirmed four times by the National Historical Institute of the Philippines. 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 Philippines Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.On the other hand, the Coast Pilot describe Limasawa as having no suitable anchorage. The Coast Pilot of 1927 published by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey states, "Limasawa is fringed by a narrow, steep-to reef off which the water is too deep to afford good anchorage for large vessels.Two dissimilar islands, one with a good anchorage and the other with no anchorage, cannot be one and the same.
jhan martin m tatoy
bsit 1st year
aug.31 2010
Our only immediate knowledge of Magellan's journey comes from the diary of the Italian Antonio Pigafetta. Antonio was not a member of the crew but an adventurous tourist who paid for his passage. In the following excerpt Antonio describes the death of Magellan on an island of the Philippines.
Searching for a way to control the native population after he leaves the island, Magellan persuades one of the local chiefs to convert to Christianity (referred to by Antonio as the "Christian King"). Magellan hopes to make this chieftain supreme over the remaining local tribes and loyal to the King of Spain. To bolster this chief's local supremacy, Magellan decides that a show of force, particularly the power of his muskets and cannon, against a neighboring tribe will impress the natives into submission.
Magellan orders an attack but miscalculates. He does not take into account that the reefs along the island's beach will not allow his ships to get into effective range for their cannon. As the battle is joined along the beach, the Spanish fire their muskets ineffectively from too far a distance despite Magellan's attempt to order his crew to cease-fire. Emboldened, the natives rush into the water flinging spears at the unprotected legs and feet of the Spanish. The crew abandons Magellan in panic and the Captain is soon overwhelmed.
"When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, those men had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries, two divisions on our flanks and the other on our front.
When the captain saw that, he formed us into two divisions, and thus did we begin to fight. The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly; for the shots only passed through the shields which were made of thin wood and the arms [of the bearers]. The captain cried to them, "Cease firing cease firing!" but his order was not at all heeded. When the natives saw that we were shooting our muskets to no purpose, crying out they determined to stand firm, but they redoubled their shouts. When our muskets were discharged, the natives would never stand still, but leaped hither and thither, covering themselves with their shields. They shot so many arrows at us and hurled so many bamboo spears (some of them tipped with iron) at the captain-general, besides pointed stakes hardened with fire, stones, and mud, that we could scarcely defend ourselves.
Seeing that, the captain-general sent some men to burn their houses in order to terrify them. When they saw their houses burning, they were roused to greater fury. Two of our men were killed near the houses, while we burned twenty or thirty houses. So many of them charged down upon us that they shot the captain through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to retire slowly, but the men took to fight, except six or eight of us who remained with the captain.The natives shot only at our legs,
JAQUIAS RANY M.
BSIT-1
Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480 into a noble Portuguese family. His parents died when he was still a boy and he became a court page in Lisbon. In 1505, he enlisted in the fleet of the Portuguese viceroy to the Indies, and spent the following years involved in a series of Portuguese expeditions in India and Africa. In 1511, he was with the fleet that conquered Malacca (on the Malay Peninsula), thus gaining control of the most important trade routes in the region. He also explored the islands of present-day Indonesia as far east as the Moluccas,also known as the Spice Islands.
In 1512, Magellan returned to Lisbon, and the following year, he was wounded during an expedition to Morocco, which left him with a permanent limp. After a disagreement with the Portuguese king, in 1517 Magellan went to Spain to try and enlist the Spanish king's support for an expedition to reach the Moluccas by sailing westwards. The Spanish wanted a share in the valuable spice trade from the Moluccas, but the Portuguese controlled the eastwards route round southern Africa. Magellan was successful and in September 1519 set out with a fleet of five vessels. In spite of a mutinous crew, rough weather, scurvy, a desperate lack of provisions and unknown waters, Magellan managed to cross the Atlantic and navigate through the straits at the southern point of South America which were later named after him.
Now with only three ships, Magellan sailed on into the Pacific with rapidly diminishing supplies, which led to many of the crew dying of starvation and scurvy. After around 14 weeks they reached an island, probably Guam, in the western Pacific. They then sailed on to the Philippines. On 27 April 1521, Magellan was killed there after becoming involved in a battle between two rival local chieftains.
One ship from the fleet eventually reached Spain in September 1522, having completed the first ever circumnavigation of the globe.
The journey resumed. The help of Duarte Barbosa was crucial to face the riot in Puerto San Julian, becoming since then captain of the Victoria. The Santiago was sent down the coast on a scouting expedition and was wrecked in a sudden storm. All of its crew survived and made it safely to shore. Two of them returned overland to inform Magellan of what had happened, and to bring rescue to their comrades. After this experience, Magellan decided to wait for a few weeks more before again resuming the voyage.
The island, or more precisely, Mazaua, not Limasawa, was first visited by foreigners with the arrival of Chinese and perhaps Arabic tradesmen. In 1225, the Chinese merchant Chau Ju Kuo described the population of Mazaua as friendly and congenial to trade-relations. On March 28, 1521, the Mazaua's raia Siaiu,as named by Antonio Pigafetta, diarist of Magellan's expedition, and Kolambu, King of Butuan was visited by Magellan and his fleet of three ships, passing through en route to the Spice Islands. The two leaders maintained very amicable relations, becoming casicasi or blood-brothers on Good Friday, 29 March 1521, second day of Magellan's stay at Mazaua.[
Jaenin R. Infiesto
BSA
The controversy concerning about the location of the first mass has not ended yet. The two claimants- Limasawa, Southern Leyte and Butuan which is formerly known as Masao District. The Mass was held to commemorate the 488th First Mass Celebration officiated by Father Joesello Amalia at Bood Promontory in Pinamanculan. The mass is in pure latin re-enacting the first Mass officiated by Fr. Pedro Valderrama, chaplain of the Spanish expedition team headed by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, on March 31, 1521. Although it was held in Butuan , the issue is still debatable because of insufficient information of both parties. According to research there is an affirmatory proof. An aerial photograph of Limasawa Island shows the two prominent hills that affirm the landmarks on Pigafetta’s map in the Beinecke manuscript. The hill on which Magellan and his crew erected a cross after the Easter Sunday Mass in 1521 was presumably the upper hill marked with a cross on the old map, and the one nearest to Triana and overlooks the present town proper from the north. The supporting evidence strongly suggest that this event happened in the vicinity of the present Barangay Triana and not in Barangay Magallanes, and that the cross was erected on the hill overlooking Triana and nowhere near the present shrine southeast of the island. In my own viewpoint, Limasawa should be the location where the first mass should be held, however it is only of temporary mean, until such time that the National Historical Institute had shown valid documents that support the claim of Butuan. Moreover, Limasawa was already noted by the Filipinos, foreigners especially the Spain as the place where the birth of Christianism was held. If there is a sudden change in the location of the first mass, the people will be confused because there are no valid documents that will certify that Butuan is the eligible area. In addition to its aerial photograph, the notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggested by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port. Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan.[5]There are compelling reasons why Limasawa could be Gatighan. Limasawa is definitely not Mazaua, therefore it must be something else. In Pigafetta's map. Gatighan is northwest of Mazaua. If Mazaua is an island at 9° North, then Gatighan is exactly where Limasawa is today. Gatighan is shown in Pigafetta's map as sandwiched between Bohol and Ceylon (today's Panaon), it is the only land mass between these two places. Limasawa is exactly between these two land masses.
Jaenin R. Infiesto
BSA
The controversy concerning about the location of the first mass has not ended yet. The two claimants- Limasawa, Southern Leyte and Butuan which is formerly known as Masao District. The Mass was held to commemorate the 488th First Mass Celebration officiated by Father Joesello Amalia at Bood Promontory in Pinamanculan. The mass is in pure latin re-enacting the first Mass officiated by Fr. Pedro Valderrama, chaplain of the Spanish expedition team headed by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, on March 31, 1521. Although it was held in Butuan , the issue is still debatable because of insufficient information of both parties. According to research there is an affirmatory proof. An aerial photograph of Limasawa Island shows the two prominent hills that affirm the landmarks on Pigafetta’s map in the Beinecke manuscript. The hill on which Magellan and his crew erected a cross after the Easter Sunday Mass in 1521 was presumably the upper hill marked with a cross on the old map, and the one nearest to Triana and overlooks the present town proper from the north. The supporting evidence strongly suggest that this event happened in the vicinity of the present Barangay Triana and not in Barangay Magallanes, and that the cross was erected on the hill overlooking Triana and nowhere near the present shrine southeast of the island. In my own viewpoint, Limasawa should be the location where the first mass should be held, however it is only of temporary mean, until such time that the National Historical Institute had shown valid documents that support the claim of Butuan. Moreover, Limasawa was already noted by the Filipinos, foreigners especially the Spain as the place where the birth of Christianism was held. If there is a sudden change in the location of the first mass, the people will be confused because there are no valid documents that will certify that Butuan is the eligible area. In addition to its aerial photograph, the notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggested by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port. Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan.[5]There are compelling reasons why Limasawa could be Gatighan. Limasawa is definitely not Mazaua, therefore it must be something else. In Pigafetta's map. Gatighan is northwest of Mazaua. If Mazaua is an island at 9° North, then Gatighan is exactly where Limasawa is today. Gatighan is shown in Pigafetta's map as sandwiched between Bohol and Ceylon (today's Panaon), it is the only land mass between these two places. Limasawa is exactly between these two land masses.
Francis Vincent Borbon
BSIT 1
The first Catholic mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa, an island town of Southern Leyte. This is the popular view. It is false.
Here's a brief explanation of this great historical error:
All the five eyewitness accounts of Magellan's voyage--by Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte--that contain references to a port named Mazaua, do not mention any island named Limasawa. There is no Philippine language that has that word.
In fact, the placename "Limasawa" is an invention of Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. Combés published in 1667 a book on evangelization of Mindanao. In his story he narrates the sojourn of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in Philippine waters. He states the fleet went to Butuan where a cross was planted on March 31, 1521. He mentions no mass held on that day.
In fact his Limasawa is not the Mazaua of Magellan. It is the isle Gatighan which is found at 10 degrees North latitude. In the story and map of Antonio Pigafetta, it is the waystation where the Armada de Molucca hove to late in the afternoon of April 4, 1521 where they caught one bat which they ate. Gatighan, like Limasawa, did not afford any anchorage.
It will be recalled Fr. Combés had no knowledge of Mazaua that was correct and factual. He in fact dismissed the account of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas who said the island-port was named Mazaua. Instead Combés opted for the garbled story by Giovanni Battista Ramusio who said the port was Butuan. Combés also dismissed the name given four years earlier by Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., for the same island. Colín's name for Pigafetta's Gatighan was "Dimasawa," an invented word, which was to signify it is not the Mazaua of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas where an Easter mass was held. Colín and Combés both adopted the story--garbled and awfully mistaken--of Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island-port where a mass was held was Butuan.
If Limasawa and Dimasawa are misnomers for Pigafetta's Gatighan, who then said that Limasawa and Mazaua are one and the same?
The man who said Combés's Limasawa is Magellan's Mazaua was Carlo Amoretti who had not only not read Combés but had not read a single primary account of Magellan's voyage except the Italian manuscript of Antonio Pigafetta. He certainly did not read Ginés de Mafra's account which is the most authoritative on Mazaua. Ginés de Mafra was the only crewmember of the fleet who was able to return to Mazaua, in 1543, and stayed there for about six (6) months. He was part of the expedition under Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. His testimony about the port is precise. In any case, Carlo Amoretti said in his edition of the Italian Pigafetta which he published in 1800 that Limasawa may be the island named Limasawa in the map of Jacques N. Bellin and that both are found in latitude 9 degrees and 40 minutes as located by Pigafetta. What he did not know was that Limasawa is in 9 deg. 56 minutes North, and there are three readings for Mazaua: Pigafetta's, Albo's 9 degrees and 20 minutes North, and The Genoese Pilot's 9 degrees North.
What most telling is the fact that Limasawa, as stated by the Coast Pilot, has no anchorage. Mazaua had an excellent harbor. Philippine historians and historiographers who have entered the discussion on Mazaua are not navigation historians and therefore this technicality has not registered on them.
It is lamentable that those who're engaged in this controversy do not take the pains to trace the word "Limasawa" to its very beginning, 1667 when it was first invented by Combés who knew nothing about Mazaua, and what he knew of it was absolutely wrong.
Ma Catherine Go
BSIT 1 (mw)
Although many historians considered him as the first circumnavigator of the globe, Ferdinand Magellan never completed his voyage around the planet. Magellan, a sea captain, commanded a fleet of five wooden Spanish ships with 241 men on board and embarked on what is now considered as "the greatest of all epics of human discovery". Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who discovered America for Spain, traveled 8,000 miles aboard a Spanish ship across the Atlantic Ocean. But Magellan's men embarked on an expedition that brought them 42,000 miles around the planet.
The voyage began on September 20, 1519. Magellan and his three remaining ships reached the Philippines on March 17, 1521. On April 27, he was killed by the men of Lapulapu, chieftain of Mactan Island in the Philippines. Only one ship, the Trinidad, with 18 European crewmen led by Sebastian del Cano and four Malay crewmen (maybe Filipinos) completed the trip around the world and arrived in Seville, Spain in 1522.
A Tridentine mass was held early morning of march 31 to commemorate the 488th First Mass Celebration officiated by Father Joesello Amalia at Bood Promontory in Pinamanculan. The mass is in pure latin re-enacting the first Mass officiated by Fr. Pedro Valderrama, chaplain of the Spanish expedition team headed by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, on March 31, 1521.
In his homily, Father Amalla explained that Bood Promontory is not the exact site where the First Mass was held but rather it is the site of commemoration of the thanksgiving mass happened in Mazzua.
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.
No one can still predict if where did the first mass held here in the Philippines.
Philippine history
tuesday:9:00-12:00
josiema L.Farnacio
bShrm
The most famous is Limasawa Island, an island town in Southern Leyte, which the Philippine Government recognizes as the actual site of the "First Mass." The powerful Roman Catholic Church also recognizes Limasawa Island as the site where Magellan and his crew landed and held the "First Mass." Furthermore, the Embassy of Portugal in Metro Manila recognizes Limasawa as the "Mazzaua" which Pigafetta wrote about as the island where Magellan and his troops observed the "First Mass" or introduced Christianity to the island's inhabitants.
The popular view, The first Catholic mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa, an island town of Southern Leyte. It is false. All the five eyewitness accounts of Magellan's voyage--by Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte--that contain references to a port named Mazaua, do not mention any island named Limasawa. There is no Philippine language that has that word. In fact, the placename "Limasawa" is an invention of Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. Combés published in 1667 a book on evangelization of Mindanao. The story that comes from Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J., that contains no reference at all to a Catholic mass being held on March 31, 1521. Indeed, his "Limassaua", was an invention, and it was meant to signify that the southern Leyte isle was not the "Mazaua" in the historical account of Magellan's voyage of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas which Combés dismissed as untrue in favor of the garbled account of Giovanni Battista Ramusio who wrote the place of anchorage from March 31-April 4, 1521 was Butuan not Mazaua. Combés, it should be pointed out, had not read a single firsthand or eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage. He was totally ignorant of the true story of the Mazaua episode. In fact, his invention, "Limasawa", was meant to repudiate the idea the anchorage was Magellan's Mazaua since he thought it was "Buthuan" as Ramusio said; and "Limasawa" directly negates any idea of an Easter mass or whatever mass having been held on March 31, 1521. Eventually, those who're engaged in this controversy do not take the pains to trace the word "Limasawa" to its very beginning, 1667 when it was first invented by Combés who knew nothing about Mazaua, and what he knew of it was absolutely wrong. And they should indeed trace the idea Limasaw=Mazaua to Carlo Amoretti who was ignorant of what Combés's Limasawa was.
However, 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. Mr. Hontiveros added, they may have been failed in their effort to pave way in the amendment of the law, but they were victorious in convincing majority of the historians that indeed, the First Mass was held in Masao, Butuan, 489 years ago today. Other historians, like then National Historical Institute Chairman Esteban A. de Ocampo and Far Eastern University Professor Celedonio O. Resurrecion also acknolwedged the mistake. Until today According to some historians,In the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, the spot of the first mass was believed to be Masao, Butuan, with even a marker commemorating the event installed there in 1872. Butuan still separately commemorates the anniversary of the first mass.
Deborah V. Bayangan Philippine History
The Philippines were celebrating how many years anniversary of the first mass but up to these years; we are still on the issue whether the site of the first mass in the Philippines was either held at Limasawa, Southern Leyte or in Masao, Butuan City. The government officials, historians, professor, students, and other different groups are debating about this matter. On the other, the Philippine government officially recognized Limasawa though…. But it is still confusing especially for the students if what is the truth.
Upon my research on the internet, there’s so many different bill, ideas, and researched that comes from different groups or person. As a student or as I have learned in my subject in Philippine History from grade school to high school was, Limasawa Island is where the first mass was held. It has been written also in all books in Philippine history.
In my own opinion, I believe that that the first mass was held at Limasawa not in Masao, Butuan because the Butuan is a city while Limasawa is an island and it is impossible that Magellan landed at a city without passing through with the island, because the Homonhon Island was the first landing point of Magellan is nearer in the Limasawa than Masao. The Limasawa was said that it is fringed by a narrow, steep to reep off which the water is to deep to afford good anchorage for a large vessel, but there still an individual that exist from that island.
The National Historical Institute (NHI) studies the issue by Vicente Calibo de Jesaus. In the course of two-year investigation by the (NHI) Gines de Mafra account testify the Mazaua, have a good anchorage was an island separated from 1521 Butuan by some 45 nautical miles (83km). They also adopt the the finding of Gancayco panel and reaffirmed its previous pronouncements that Limasawa is Magellan’s port.
Gines de Mafra testify that the port of Mazaua was west of the island but now-popular belief it was east, as affirmed four times by the National Historical Institute of the Philippines. On June 19, 1960 to the Republic Act No. 2733 was called “Limasawa Law”. The legislative fiat was declared that Limasawa Island in the province of Leyte is where the first mass in the Philippines was held is hereby declared by the National Shrine to commemorate the birth of Christianity.
Fr. Francisco Combes in obra publicada en Madrid e 1667 that he have been written saying that the word Limasawa is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate, which described Magellan’s sojourn in the Philippine waters. A conservator Carlo Amoretti published his transcription of the newly discovered authentic extant manuscript, the only extant codex in Italian of Antonio Pigaffeta. In his edition Amoretti equated Mazaua in “Massana” and the name popularized by Maximilianus Transylvanus with Combes Limasawa. The Philippine scholar James A. Robertson translated Pigafetta’s manuscript for the Philippine Island in 1905. The document in Philippine history was translated into English and transcrided by himself. In translation that was based on the Italian transcription by Andrea da Mosto, then Robertson asserted a footnote No.26 in volume 33 that “Mazaua” was now called “the Island of Limasawa”
Renato A. Punzalan
BSA-I History Friday 10:30 to 1:30
FIRST MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES
As a member of a Catholic Church and a good Christian it is the spirit of the mass celebration that matters to me. It is how people wants to celebrate it not the place it should or will be held nor a credit on the place that matters.
Nevertheless, being asked my opinion and sort of class discussion and on my research my opinion is it was held in Masao Butuan. I agree with Father Joesello Amalia as well as Mr. Grag Hontiveros and to the rest who also believed the same.
Father Amalia who officiated the 488th mass in Butuan celebrated the Masss in pure latin re-enacting the first Mass officiated by Farher Pedro Valderrama, chaplain of the Spanish expedition team headed by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, on March 31, 1521. As explained by Father Amalia on his homily the Bood Promontory is not the exact site where the First Mass was held but rather it is the site of commemoration of the thanksgiving mass happened in Masao in Butuan.
The First Mass controversy continues and historian experts have been called to intervene in its hope to seetle 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 ws indeed held in Limasawa Island.
However, the Bututan 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. He added that they may have been failed in their efforts to pave way in the amendment of the law, but they were victorious in convincing majority of the historians that indeed, the First Mass was held in Masao, Butuan.
The First Mass in the Philippines was on Eater Sundat March 31, 1521 in an Island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo, the Genoese pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte, at a location today universally, and mistakenly believed to be Limasawa, a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province, and is said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country.
The historical event, viewed largely in its religious context in the Philippines but more comprehensively in its global context as a fleeting episode of the 1,081day circumnavigation of the world, came to pass when Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his Armada de Molucca of three sailing ships, landed in the western port of the island of Mazaua.
The placename Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage. It is not found in any language of the Philippines. It is a neologism, an invention. It may be traced only as far back as 1667 in a historical study of the evangelization of southern Philippines, specifically Mindanao, Historia de Mindanao y Joló, por el p. Francisco Combés . Obra publicada en Madrid en 1667, written by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. The word Limasaua is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate, which describes Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters.
Both Combés and Colín had adopted a 1536 story originating with Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island where Magellan's fleet landed was Butuan. Ramusio, in translating a French text of Antonio Pigafetta, had erroneously replaced Mazaua with "Buthuan" which appears as "Butuan" in the authentic account of Antonio Pigafetta of which there are four manuscripts that have survived.
Renato A. Punzalan
BSA-I History Friday 10:30 to 1:30
FIRST MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES
As a member of a Catholic Church and a good Christian it is the spirit of the mass celebration that matters to me. It is how people wants to celebrate it not the place it should or will be held nor a credit on the place that matters.
Nevertheless, being asked my opinion and sort of class discussion and on my research my opinion is it was held in Masao Butuan. I agree with Father Joesello Amalia as well as Mr. Grag Hontiveros and to the rest who also believed the same.
Father Amalia who officiated the 488th mass in Butuan celebrated the Masss in pure latin re-enacting the first Mass officiated by Farher Pedro Valderrama, chaplain of the Spanish expedition team headed by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, on March 31, 1521. As explained by Father Amalia on his homily the Bood Promontory is not the exact site where the First Mass was held but rather it is the site of commemoration of the thanksgiving mass happened in Masao in Butuan.
The First Mass controversy continues and historian experts have been called to intervene in its hope to seetle 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 ws indeed held in Limasawa Island.
However, the Bututan 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. He added that they may have been failed in their efforts to pave way in the amendment of the law, but they were victorious in convincing majority of the historians that indeed, the First Mass was held in Masao, Butuan.
The First Mass in the Philippines was on Eater Sundat March 31, 1521 in an Island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo, the Genoese pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte, at a location today universally, and mistakenly believed to be Limasawa, a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province, and is said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country.
The historical event, viewed largely in its religious context in the Philippines but more comprehensively in its global context as a fleeting episode of the 1,081day circumnavigation of the world, came to pass when Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his Armada de Molucca of three sailing ships, landed in the western port of the island of Mazaua.
The placename Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage. It is not found in any language of the Philippines. It is a neologism, an invention. It may be traced only as far back as 1667 in a historical study of the evangelization of southern Philippines, specifically Mindanao, Historia de Mindanao y Joló, por el p. Francisco Combés . Obra publicada en Madrid en 1667, written by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. The word Limasaua is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate, which describes Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters.
Both Combés and Colín had adopted a 1536 story originating with Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island where Magellan's fleet landed was Butuan. Ramusio, in translating a French text of Antonio Pigafetta, had erroneously replaced Mazaua with "Buthuan" which appears as "Butuan" in the authentic account of Antonio Pigafetta of which there are four manuscripts that have survived.
Angelyn F. Merano BSIT-I
Tue 9:00-12:00
The first Catholic mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa, an island town of Southern Leyte. This is the popular view. It is false.
All the five eyewitness accounts of Magellan's voyage--by Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte--that contain references to a port named Mazaua, do not mention any island named Limasawa. There is no Philippine language that has that word.
In fact, the placename "Limasawa" is an invention of Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. Combés published in 1667 a book on evangelization of Mindanao. In his story he narrates the sojourn of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in Philippine waters. He states the fleet went to Butuan where a cross was planted on March 31, 1521. He mentions no mass held on that day.
In fact his Limasawa is not the Mazaua of Magellan. It is the isle Gatighan which is found at 10 degrees North latitude. In the story and map of Antonio Pigafetta, it is the waystation where the Armada de Molucca hove to late in the afternoon of April 4, 1521 where they caught one bat which they ate. Gatighan, like Limasawa, did not afford any anchorage.
It will be recalled Fr. Combés had no knowledge of Mazaua that was correct and factual. He in fact dismissed the account of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas who said the island-port was named Mazaua. Instead Combés opted for the garbled story by Giovanni Battista Ramusio who said the port was Butuan. Combés also dismissed the name given four years earlier by Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., for the same island. Colín's name for Pigafetta's Gatighan was "Dimasawa," an invented word, which was to signify it is not the Mazaua of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas where an Easter mass was held. Colín and Combés both adopted the story--garbled and awfully mistaken--of Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island-port where a mass was held was Butuan.
If Limasawa and Dimasawa are misnomers for Pigafetta's Gatighan, who then said that Limasawa and Mazaua are one and the same
Queen Rose Solis
BSIT-I
The location of the first mass is in the Limasawa.Limasawa was the place given by the American historians and some Spanish historians who wrote famous books later.The place is describe as an "island"and Butuan is not an island.The latitude positio that is closer to limasawa than to Butuan,which lies at latitude only.Magellan was sailing to unknown seas and he bumped into limasawa after Homonhon.Magellan was never in Mindanao.The relics of ancient balanghai boats and gold artifacts in Butuan could have come from Limasawa.Limasawa is closer to cebu where Magellan went next.
Joana M. Flores
BS HRM
Fourteen years into the future, a very important event will be celebrated in the Philippines. On March 31, 2021, perhaps over 95 million Filipinos will be celebrating, God willing, the 500th Anniversary of the First Mass which Ferdinand Magellan introduced in the only Asian country which resulted in 83% Roman Catholics and 9 to 10% Protestants of the present population.
Unlike the 500th Feast of Santo Niño which will be observed for sure in Cebu City, the First Mass celebration will divide the honored guests, visitors and tourists from many foreign countries. Thousands and thousands of the people will travel by pump-boats and chartered ships to Limasawa, an island town in Southern Leyte, and thousands will also travel by cars, trucks, buses, and other land transportation to Masao, the old name of Mazaua, Butuan City in Mindanao.
A WORTHLESS ARGUMENT WHICH NEVER ENDS
The Filipinos, particularly those in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte and Limasawa, Southern Leyte will probably be still disunited before, on the anniversary date, and after the 500th Anniversary celebration in the year 2021 of the First Mass in the Philippines. Unless the experts of Antonio Pigafetta's original Italian diary, journal or logbook regarding Magellan's landings and the First Mass on Easter issues, in addition to the Portuguese and Spanish governments' official statements on Limasawa Island as the original site, would come to the aid of the National Historical Institute, they will have two different brochures for the tourists and visitors to the First Mass historical landmark: one in Limasawa, Southern Leyte and the other one in Mazaua, Butuan City.
For the past centuries, innumerable numbers of Filipinos including the top experts in education, history, religion, politics, and other subjects are still debating as to the exact location of the First Mass in the Philippines, which occurred on March 31, 1521. Is it Limasawa or Mazaua?
Rosella S. Mabalot
BSA
According to Philippine historian, Limasawa was the first ever mass in the Philippines was celebrated. Thus, limasawa is famously referred to as "site of the first mass in the Philippines Primary and secondary sources point to Mazaua, not Limasawa and not Butuan, as the port where an Easter Sunday mass was held on March 31, 1521. The description of present-day Limasawa does not fit the geologic, geographic, geomorphologic, archaeological, histriographic categories of Mazaua as described and explained in the eyewitness chronicles of Antonio Pigaffeta.The first mass was been disputed for a long time with two locations namely Limasawa and Masao, Butuan. It has been clearly an issue for so many years before the researchers and historians came up with the solution of putting Limasawa to be the location held of the first mass.
On my own perception I agreed that limasawa was the first mass held in the Philippines, based on the evidence written by pigaffeta. Gatighan is shown in Pigafetta's map as sandwiched between Bohol and Ceylon (today's Panaon), it is the only land mass between these two places. Limasawa is exactly between these two land masses. But pigaffeta not yet proven his theory. Limasawa is still amazingly undeveloped after 500 years and is a great little island to get away from the world for a few days. Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage. It is not found in any language of the Philippines. It is a neologism, an invention. It may be traced only as far back as 1667 in a historical study of the evangelization of southern Philippines, specifically Mindanao.
As time fast by, some of the Philippine historian disagree in this theory. They assume that the first mass was held in the butuan. That’s why most of us wondering what is the truth, and there is a new issued out that not limasawa nor butuan was the first mass held. But for the meantime I believe in limasawa, because they give a evidence about this issue, and they justify this theory.
♥where did the first mass happened in Limasawa or Butuan?
The First Mass in the Philippines was held on 31 March 1521 on the island of Limasawa, Southern Leyte by the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Also the first baptism in the country, it marked the start of centuries of Catholic influence, making the Philippines the only predominantly Roman Catholic country in Asia.
On 31 March 1521 Magellan ordered the expedition's chaplain, Fray Pedro de Valderrama, to celebrate Easter Sunday mass. It was only a few days after the blood compact between Magellan and Rajah Kolambu of Leyte; because of this alliance, the rajah allowed Magellan and his men to come ashore to celebrate mass. Rajah Kolambu was also invited to the mass along with Rajah Siagu of Butuan, his brother. The mass was then attended by the two rajahs, Magellan, and members of the crew, among them Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, and Francisco Albo who would thereafter write accounts of the first mass. According to Pigafetta's account, Magellan “threw much rose muscat water over those two kings,” largely interpreted as the baptism of the two rajahs. The two rajahs then participated in the mass, kissing the cross in the same way as the members of the expedition did, and receiving communion. After the mass, Magellan asked that a cross be installed at the highest peak, explaining that the cross would defend them from harm. To this the two rajahs agreed, and the cross was set up on two hills on the western side of Limasawa.
based on what i have researched on the internet most are in favor of butuan that this was the place where the first mass was held but I think that the first mass was held in Limasawa because the ship of the Spaniards first land at Cebu and Limasawa is 80 miles from Cebu, nearer than that in Butuan, Mazua which is 140 miles from Cebu, and Limasawa is more popular than that in Butuan, Where the first mass was held.
May Ann campos BSE ENG
based on my researched i am convinced that the first mass in the philippines was held in limasawa
The first mass in the phil was on easter sunday march 31 1521 in an island named Mazaua by eyewitness Antonio Pigafetta Gines de Mafra Francisco Albo the genoese pilot and Martin de Agamonte at a location today universaly and mistakenly believed to be limasaw a town islet to the tip of southern leyte province and is said to be the birthplace of roman catholicism in the country.
on march 31 1521 an easter sunday Magellan ordered a mass to be celebrated which was officiated by Friar Pedro Valderama the Andalusion chaplain of the fleet the only priest then the other priest the French Bernard Calmette has been marooned at Patogonia with cantagera for being implicated in the mutiny conducted near the shore of the island the holy first mass marked the birth of roman catholicism in the phil colambu and siaiu were the first native 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 Mazaua inhabitants together with visitors from Butuan who came with the entourage of RaJah colambu king of butuan.
but somehow on the other hand there is an article also that it says this was FALSE.
If limasaw and Dimasaw are misnomer for Pigafetta who then said that Limasaw and Mazaua are one and the same?
oh my GoD i am confused already what is the true but i will still beleive and stand for my answer that the first mass was held in Limasawa because it was the place where in my teachers in elementary and highschool thought me....
Pereira, Rose Anne
BSCS 1
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 Philippines."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 Philippines." Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.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 Philippines." Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.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 Philippines."Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa. Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.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 Philippines."Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.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 Philippines." Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.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 Philippines."Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.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 Philippines." Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.
gelardine aldema bsba
Limasawa town in Southern Leyte and Butuan City on behalf of its old Masao District.
The decades-old Limasawa vs Masao dispute was officially settled in March 1998 when the National Historical Institute (NHI) ruled for Limasawa. But this verdict did not deter the pro-Masao group from persisting with their claim and performing parallel ceremonies.
The NHI decision ignored another historical error by tacitly upholding the belief that the First Mass was held in the southeastern coast of Limasawa, in the vicinity of the present Barangay Magallanes.
Vicente C. de Jesus, an independent scholar who strongly supports the Butuan claim, has criticized the NHI commission that looked into the issue for allegedly dismissing an eyewitness account that implied a western site of the First Mass on the island recorded as Mazaua in 16th-century documents.
The witness was Gines de Mafra, a member of both the Magellan expedition in 1521 and the Villalobos expedition in 1543. He had dropped by Limasawa on both occasions. In 1543, he met again the same chief, presumably Rajah Kolambu, who received Magellan in 1521.
De Mafra’s account had remained hidden in a Madrid archive for 375 years before it was found and published in 1920. It mentioned that the Magellan fleet anchored in Mazaua at “a good harbor on its western side, and is inhabited.”
De Mafra’s claim is corroborated by a map made by Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of the Magellan expedition, according to De Jesus.
A single sentence in the popular James Robertson translation of the Pigafetta account could give the First Mass event to western Limasawa. It said: “In the afternoon we went in the ships and anchored near the dwelling of the king.”
This meant sailing the ships from their initial anchorage off the southeastern coast and rounding the island at the south toward the acantilado (deep) waters of the western cove fronting Barangay Triana, the oldest settlement and present town proper of Limasawa.
Such overlooked movement of Magellan’s ships could corroborate De Mafra’s account.
The locals had always believed that Triana was a word play on Tirana, the name of the legendary Bisayan queen who was known as one of the five wives of Rajah Bankaw.
But Fr. Peter Schreurs, MSC, who had published two books that favor the Limasawa claim, told this writer in a 1999 letter that Triana was a suburb of the old Spanish capital of Seville, across the Guadalquivir River, in which main church Magellan was wedded to Beatriz Barbosa.
Thus, it now seems that it was Magellan himself who designated the name Triana to the settlement in Limasawa.
Affirmatory proof
An aerial photograph of Limasawa Island shows the two prominent hills that affirm the landmarks on Pigafetta’s map in the Beinecke manuscript. The hill on which Magellan and his crew erected a cross after the Easter Sunday Mass in 1521 was presumably the upper hill marked with a cross on the old map, and the one nearest to Triana and overlooks the present town proper from the north.
Perhaps now is the time for the NHI to consider issuing a complementary amendment to their verdict related to the First Mass being held in Limasawa. The supporting evidence strongly suggest that this event happened in the vicinity of the present Barangay Triana and not in Barangay Magallanes, and that the cross was erected on the hill overlooking Triana and nowhere near the present shrine southeast of the island.
With the official correction, it is hoped that the fifth centennial of the Limasawa event in 2021, or 14 years from now, could be celebrated in its right place on the island.
I consider this statement as my source because it really explains why the Limasawa should be the place where the first mass has been done during Magellan's time. It is shows here that there has a even a small proof that Limasawa well be the place that known as where the first mass held. this is just my own opinion that I believe that the first mass was held in Limasawa.
Claudine Lopez
BSBA-Friday 10:30-1:30
There are two beliefs were the first mass was held in the Philippines.The first place were the filipino beliefs was in the Butuan and the second one was in Limasawa.
For me,based on my researched and to my past lesson taught by my teacher in elementary and highschool ,they said that the first mass was held in Limasawa.The first mass in the Philippines was on Easter Sunday March 31,1521 in an Island named Masawa.But when I maked another researched,the named Limasawa and Dimasawa was misnomer which means wrong name.When I read it,i got confused,I dont know what will I choose,either Limasawa or Butuan.The researched also state that there is no Philippines language that has the word.In fact,the place name Limasawa is an invention of FR. Fransisco Combes,S.J Combes published in 1667 a book on Evangelization of Mindanao.In his histoy,he narrates the Sojurn of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in Philippines waters.He states that fleet went to Butuan where a cross was plauted on March 31,1521.He mentions no mass held in that day.But on the other hand,I'm still believing that the first mass was held in Limasawa because it was the first thing that my teacher taught to me.
PATRICK J. IRLANDA
BSA 1
According sa librong nabasa ko
Limasaua, Marso 28, 1521
DAHIL may naaninaw kaming apoy nuong nakaraang gabi, dumaong kami sa isang pulo (Limasawa, sa timog ng Leyte) nuong Jueves, Marso 28, 1521, at nakita namin ang 8 lalaki, sakay sa isang maliit na bangka na tinawag nilang boloto at lumapit sa barko ng capitan-general.
Tinawag sila ng alipin ng capitan (si Enrique) na taga-Zamatra (Sumatra, sa Indonesia), ang dating tinawag na Traprobana, at lumapit ang bangka subalit madaling lumayo uli at ayaw umakyat sa barko dahil walang tiwala sa amin. Ang ginawa ng capitan, ipinakita sa kanila ang isang pulang cap (munting taklob sa ulo) at iba pang bagay, itinali sa isang patpat at inabot sa bangka. Tuwang-tuwang kinuha ang mga ito ng mga lalaki at umalis upang ibalita sa kanilang hari.
Pagkaraan ng 2 oras, dumating ang 2 mahabang bangkang pandagat, na tinawag nilang ballanghai (baranggay), na punung-puno ng mga lalaki. Sa mas malaking bangka nakaupo ang kanilang hari sa ilalim ng tabing (awning) na gawa sa banig. Paglapit sa barko ng capitan, kinausap siya ng alipin at naunawaan ng hari dahil duon, mas maraming salita ang alam ng hari kaysa alam ng mga karaniwang tao.
Inutusan ng hari ang ilang mga kasama na pumanhik sa barko ng capitan samantalang maghihintay na lamang daw siya sa kanyang bangka sa tabi ng barko. Maganang sinalubong ng capitan ang mga umakyat sa barko at binigyan ng maraming handog. Ipinabigay naman ng hari ang isang malaking piraso ng ginto at isang buslo (basket) ng luya. Ngunit tinanggihan ng capitan, bagama’t maraming pasalamat siyang binigkas. Madaling umalis ang hari pagbaba ng mga lalaki mula sa barko. At pagbaba ng araw, naglayag ang mga barko papunta sa bahay ng hari.
Kinabukasan, Viernes Santo (Good Friday), pinapunta ng capitan sa dalampasigan ang alipin (si Enrique) na tagapagsalita (interpreter) namin upang bumili (‘in return for his money’) sa hari ng mga pagkain, at sabihin na naparito kami upang makipagkaibigan at hindi makipag-away. Pagkarinig nito, dumating ang hari kasama ng 7 o 8 lalaki sa kanyang bangka at umakyat sa barko.
Niyakap niya ang capitan at nagbigay ng bigas (raw rice) sa loob ng 3 banga (jars) na porselana na may takip ng mga dahon, 2 malaking isda (orades) , at may iba pang handog. Binigyan ng capitan ang hari ng isang bata (robe) ng makapal na pula at dilaw na tela, at isang pulang cap (maliit na saklob sa ulo). Ang mga kasama ng hari ay binigyan ng mga balaraw (cuchillos, knives), at mga salamin (mirrors) ang ibinigay sa iba. Tapos, inutos ng capitan na silbihan sila ng merienda (
Risa M. Ale
BSED-ENGLISH
In the choices,I chose the Limasawa even if there's a lot of history.Why?Because of there explaination that the first island that Magellan came up.I convince,in their opinion and I also believe that the Limasawa is the first island.And I also come up in my mined when I read the story about that.There's a thing also that the Masawa the first island but they just described by their own opinion.In the other hand,Limasawa is the island that we've seen at the place of Butuan somewhere in Mindanao.These called Limasawa because of there first ever mass.That's why they name that island.Limasawa island is a small than the other island.Magellan used the ship of Victoria when they arrived here in our country.And this ship is the smallest among the five ships.And Magellan realized that they need to have rest that's why they landed Limasawa.Limasawa has a history,according to wayward and superficial history,Limasawa and not Masawa is where fisrt ever mass in the Philippines was celebrated.Thus,Limasawa is famously referred to as"site of the first ever mass."Thus,guided the chief of Limasawa,passing through between Bohol and Leyte and close to the Camotes Island,they entered.Magellan contented himself with having them to reverence to the cross which is erected upon as a sign of future generations of their alliance.Even though until today there's a debate about that situation that's why they need to confine o step solution.The Philippine historian Jose S. Arcilla,who believes that Limasawa is site of ever first mass in our country and also all the Jesuit historians in the Philippines do.In Pigafetta as described,present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan,though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven.Gatighan is shown in Pigafetta's map as sandwiched two land masses.And exactly that's the Limasawa between two land masses.By contributing Limasawa has already a explaination has a description above all.And I got this also when I read the history,Limasawa Island is hereby declared a national shrine to commemorate the birth of Christianity in the Philippines.And Limasawa is fringed by a narrow,steep-to reef off which the water is too deep to afford good anchorge for large vessels.
In the translation ,based on the Italian manuscript,Robertson asserted that "MASAWA"was now called the Island of Limasawa."According to the the historian de Mindanao that the word Limasawa is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate,which describes Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters.The place name Limasawa is the name of a tiny isle w est of Panaon,in Bohol and Leyte.This is represented all texts which until today its erroneous.And is said to be birthplace of Roman Catholicision in the country.
Janine Gonzales
The first Catholic mass in the Phillipines was held in limasawa an island town of southern Leyte.IT is the ordered of Magellan.The first mass was on March 31 1521 an Estern Sunday.It was only a few days after the blood compact between him and Rajah Kolambu at Leyte,because of his alliance,the rajah Kolambu allowed Magellan and his men to come ashores to celebrate mass.Rajah Kolambu was also invited to the mass along with rajah Slagu of Butuan,his brother.The exact location of the first mass has been disputed for decades,primarily between two locations limasawa and the Masao,butuan.In the 17th to 19th centuries,the spot of the first mass was believed to be masao,Butuan with a marks ammemorating.The event installed there in 1872.The claim was founded on two works.it is the Labor evangelica of Francisco Colin S.J.Published in Mardin 1633 and the historia de mindanao y Jolo by Francisco Combes S.J.published in Madrid in 1667.
MELDRID G. PRUGELIO
BSIT-1
The first mass was held at limasawa was on Eastersunday MARCH 31 1521 in as is named mazzua by eyewiness Antonio Pigaffetta...The historical event, viewed largely in its religious context in the Philippines but more comprehensively in its global context as a fleeting episode of the 1,081-day circumnavigation of the world, came to pass when Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his Armada de Molucca of three sailing ships, landed in the western port of the island of Mazaua.De Herrera is the only historian whose faithful account of the Mazaua incident with the correct name—Mazaua, or as pronounced, "masawa"—was ever published from the 16th century up to the very start of 1933 when the eyewitness account of Martín de Ayamonte saw print. Ayamonte's spelling of the name was "Maçava" with a cedilla c, with a tail, which was an archaic form of the sound s, and v with the value w which is absent in the alphabets of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and other Romance languages.
In 1995 a bill was filed by then Congresswoman Charito B. Plaza of Agusan del Norte claiming the Easter mass on March 31, 1521 was held at Butuan not Limasawa. The bill's contention was that the wooden boat called "balanghai" dug up at Butuan proved it was Mazaua.
JOCELYN TOLENTINO BSA PHILS HIST.... FRIDAY 10:30-1:30PM
On March 31, the 500th anniversary of the recorded First Mass in the Philippines in 1521 was commemorated by two claimants—Limasawa town in Southern Leyte and Butuan City on behalf of its old Masao District.The decades-old Limasawa vs Masao dispute was officially settled in March 1998 when the National Historical Institute (NHI) ruled for Limasawa. But this verdict did not deter the pro-Masao group from persisting with their claim and performing parallel ceremonies.A legacy of this error, the new Shrine of the First Holy Mass an edifice made of bricks and polished concrete that was inaugurated two years ago sits on top of a hill overlooking the barangay. Vicente C. de Jesus, an independent scholar who strongly supports the Butuan claim, has criticized the NHI commission that looked into the issue for allegedly dismissing an eyewitness account that implied a western site of the First Mass on the island recorded as Mazaua in 16th-century documents. The witness was Gines de Mafra, a member of both the Magellan expedition in 1521 and the Villalobos expedition in 1543. He had dropped by Limasawa on both occasions. In 1543, he met again the same chief, presumably Rajah Kolambu, who received Magellan in 1521. De Mafra’s account had remained hidden in a Madrid archive for 375 years before it was found and published in 1920. It mentioned that the Magellan fleet anchored in Mazaua at “a good harbor on its western side, and is inhabited.” De Mafra’s claim is corroborated by a map made by Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of the Magellan expedition, according to De Jesus. The map in the Nancy-Libri-Beinecke-Yale codex is said to show a cross in one of two hills facing the sea southwest of the island.
The Pigafetta map in the Beinecke manuscript shows the cross on the upper hill near the sea. The lower hill, drawn in the middle of the land mass at the bottom of the map, does not have the cross symbol. A single sentence in the popular James Robertson translation of the Pigafetta account could give the First Mass event to western Limasawa. It said: “In the afternoon we went in the ships [and anchored] near the dwelling of the king.” This meant sailing the ships from their initial anchorage off the southeastern coast and rounding the island at the south toward the acantilado (deep) waters of the western cove fronting Barangay Triana, the oldest settlement and present town proper of Limasawa. Such overlooked movement of Magellan’s ships could corroborate De Mafra’s account. The locals had always believed that Triana was a word play on Tirana, the name of the legendary Bisayan queen who was known as one of the five wives of Rajah Bankaw. But Fr. Peter Schreurs, MSC, who had published two books that favor the Limasawa claim, told this writer in a 1999 letter that Triana was a suburb of the old Spanish capital of Seville, across the Guadalquivir River, in which main church Magellan was wedded to Beatriz Barbosa. Thus, it now seems that it was Magellan himself who designated the name Triana to the settlement in Limasawa.
An aerial photograph of Limasawa Island shows the two prominent hills that affirm the landmarks on Pigafetta’s map in the Beinecke manuscript. The hill on which Magellan and his crew erected a cross after the Easter Sunday Mass in 1521 was presumably the upper hill marked with a cross on the old map, and the one nearest to Triana and overlooks the present town proper from the north. Perhaps now is the time for the NHI to consider issuing a complementary amendment to their verdict related to the First Mass being held in Limasawa. The supporting evidence strongly suggest that this event happened in the vicinity of the present Barangay Triana and not in Barangay Magallanes, and that the cross was erected on the hill overlooking Triana and nowhere near the present shrine southeast of the island. With the official correction, it is hoped that the fifth centennial of the Limasawa event in 2021, could be celebrated in its right place on the island.
Ramon P. Aguelo Jr.
BSCS 1
On 31 March 1521 Magellan ordered the expedition's chaplain, Fray Pedro de Valderrama, to celebrate Easter Sunday mass.The placename Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage. It is not found in any language of the Philippines. It is a neologism, an invention. It may be traced only as far back as 1667 in a historical study of the evangelization of southern Philippines, specifically Mindanao, Historia de Mindanao y Joló, por el p. Francisco Combés ... Obra publicada en Madrid en 1667, written by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. The word Limasaua is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate, which describes Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters.
This placename, Limasawa, is the name of a tiny isle west of Panaon, in Southeast Leyte, and east of Bohol. Four years before Combés, in 1664, the same isle was named Dimasaua by Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., to signify that it was not the island Mazagua where an Easter mass was reported by Spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas. De Herrera is the only historian whose faithful account of the Mazaua incident with the correct name—Mazaua, or as pronounced, masawa was ever published from the 16th century up to the very start of 1933 when the eyewitness account of Martín de Ayamonte saw print. Ayamonte's spelling of the name was Macava with a cedilla c, with a tail, which was an archaic form of the sound s, and v with the value w which is absent in the alphabets of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and other Romance languages.
Both Combés and Colín had adopted a 1536 story originating with Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island where Magellan's fleet landed was Butuan. Ramusio, in translating a French text of Antonio Pigafetta, had erroneously replaced Mazaua with Buthuan which appears as "Butuan" in the authentic account of Antonio Pigafetta of which there are four manuscripts that have survived. (All the four extant manuscripts are mere copies of originals.) From 1536 until the 19th century, Ramusio's Buthuan error was reflected in historical accounts of Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters. There are a number of versions of Ramusio, the one adopted by Colín talks of a mass in "Buthuan"; this version is represented by the English translation of Richard Eden contained in pages 255-256, Three English books on America. 1511 - 1555 A.D. Being chiefly Translations, Compilations, &c., by Richard Eden,,From the Writings, Maps, &c., of… (1885),Publisher: Birmingham, [Printed by Turnbull & Spears, Edingburgh]. The one adopted by Combés is a version of Ramusio represented by the English translation by Samuel Purchas—it does not mention any mass anywhere in the archipelago of San Lazaro.
Along the same spirit of invention, there were others who came up with their own imagined names and various spellings: Limasaoa, Limasana, Limasagua, Dimasaua, Dimasava, Dimasagua, Simasaua.
Fritz Mark B. Antonio
tue 9-12pm
BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – With local historians insisting that the First Mass in the country was held here and not on Limasawa Island in Southern Leyte, the city will reenact the historic event today.
The reenactment will involve an all-Latin Mass or “Tridentine Mass” to be officiated by Fr. Joesilo Amalia at the Bood promontory in Barangay Pinamangculan.
Local historians maintained that it was in Pinamangculan where the First Mass was held on March 31, 1521, officiated by Fr. Pedro Valderama.
It's the 489th anniversary of the historic first mass in the Philippines where Ferdinand Magellan (Fernando Magallanes), a Portuguese in the service of the Spanish crown, celebrated the Catholic rite on Easter Sunday of 1521.
The day, March 31, 1521, was on an island recorded by Magellan's chronicler as Mazaua but the issue on Mazaua's exact location is still hot debated by several groups that even the National Historical Institutes stand on the issue is not accepted.
The official NHI stand points to Limasawa Island off the coast of Leyte, an island without a harbor making it impossible to be the lost harbor of Magellan according to others. Another claim is that Mazaua is in Butuan, but Butuan is not an island unless geomorphologists can really prove the island of Mazaua is now part of Butuan where the balangay boats were excavated. The third claim is the area of Pinamanculan-Bancasi.
The issue can only be settled unless archeologists can dig up artifacts attesting to the claims or any person who witnessed the event resurrects on Easter Sunday.
The latter seems improbable and the former needs lots of money and time. For now the controversy and debate will go on the issue.
Annually, a Tridentine Mass is held at Bood Promontory in Pinamanculan, Butuan to commemorate the first mass while there's also a commemoration in Magallanes, Limasawa island, Southern Leyte.
EPE ESPINOSA LEPASANA 111
BSE ENG 1
FRI 10:30-1:30
I Would agree that the first mass was conducted at the island called masao. because when the time that Magellan came here in the Philippines, they first landed in the island which is very comfortable for them to stay. they landed in in the islet of homonhon at the mouth of leyte gulf. in the afternoon of Monday, march 25, 1521. magellan left homonhon, due to the storm. he was forced to sail south along the Northeast tip of Mindanao towards butuan bay. which provided a shelter from the typhoon. after the typhoon on the other day, it was holy thursday, march 28 the fleet landed in masao butuan , Agusan Del Norte. that time tyhe king of butuan was Raha Siagu (siaui). so they welcomed magellan. they made a blood compact as a sign of there brotherhood or friendship. between magellan and the king of butuan, Raha Siagu.
on the Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521. a mass was conducted in the masao shore, acctually it was the first catholic mass here ion the Philippines. and the mass was officiated by Rev. pedro De Villarama and was witness by magellan, king kulambu and saigu and some filipino people.
therefore, i will agree that the first mass was conducted in masao. because it was witness by the Filipino people. and the name of the place was only have 3 syllables, according to Antonio Pigafetta. according to him: the route from homonhon, says that the expedition traveled 20-25 degrees Leagues from homonhon, and there first landing is also the place where the first mass was held.
The latitude position,: the masao island is exactly 90 degrees North latitude. while limasawa is 9 2/3 or closer to ten degrees. thjat why masao is the exact place.. that is why i agree of what does Dr. sonia m. Zaide said on her book because her article is so informative... thanks
Garlin Sumagingsing BEED All the five eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage--by Antonio Pigafetta,Gines de Mafra,Francisco Albo, Genoese Pilot,and Martin de Ayamonte-- that contain references to a port named Mazaua,do not mention any island named Limasawa.There is no Philippine language that has that word.In fact,the placname"Limasawa"is an invention of Fr. Francisco Combes published in 1667 a book on evangelization of Mindanao.In his story he narrates the sojourn of Ferdinand Magellan's fleet in Philippine waters. He states the fleet went to Butuan where a cross was planted On March at 31,1521.He mentions no mass held on that day.In fact his Limasawa is not the Mazaua of Magellan.It is the isle Gatighan wich is found at 10 degress Nort latitude.In the story and map of Antonio Pigafetta,it si the waystation where the Armada de Molucca have to late in the afternoon ofApril 4,1521 wherethey caught one bat wich they ate.Gatighan,like Limasawa,did not afford any anchorage.It will be recalled Fr.Combes had no knowledge of Mazaua that was correct and functual.He in fact dismissed the account ofAntonio de Herrera y Tordesillas who said the island ort was named Mazaua.Instead Combes opted for garbeld story by Giovanni battista Rramusio who said the port was Butuan.Combes also dismissed the name given four years earlier by Fr.Francisco Colin,S.J.,for the same island.Colins name for Pigafetta's Gatighan was "dimasawa" An invented word,which was to signify it is not the Mazaua of Antonio de Herrera y Todesillas where an Easter mass held.Colin and Combes both adopted the story--garbled and awfully mistaken--of Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island-port where was held was Butuan.
Joan Ericka Suan Assignment no. 2
BSBA Friday 10:30-1:30 Philippine History
The exact location of the first mass has been disputed for decades, primarily between two locations: Limasawa, and Masao, Butuan.
Base on my researched on internet, there is so many idea if what is the exact location of the first mass in the Philippines and it still debatable .. According to the REPUBLIC ACT NO. 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,
According to wayward and superficial history, Limasawa and not Mazaua is where the first ever Mass in the Philippines was celebrated. Thus, Limasawa is famously referred to as "site of the First mass in the Philippines." Primary and secondary sources point to Mazaua, not Limasawa and not Butuan, as the port where an Easter Sunday mass was held on March 31, 1521. The description of present-day Limasawa does not fit the geologic, geographic, geomorphologic, archaeologic, histriographic categories of Mazaua as described and explained in the eyewitness chronicles of Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra,, Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, Martín de Ayamonte, as well as the secondhand accounts of Antonio de Brito, Andres de San Martín, Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, and Maximilianus Transylvanus. Up to this time, there is still debate on where Mazaua is. The Limasawa story was written by a Jesuit missionary, Fr. Francisco Combés who had not read a single primary account. His 3-paragraph story of the Mazua episode does not refer to any kind of mass having been held anywhere in the Visayas or Mindanao. His Limasawa also is not the port where Magellan and his fleet anchored from March 28 to April 4, 1521.
Combes wrote “The first time that the royal standards of the Faith were seen to fly in this island [of Mindanao] was when the Archipelago was first discovered by the Admiral Alonso de Magallanes. He followed a new and difficult route [across the Pacific] , entering by the Strait of Siargao, formed by that island and that of Leyte, and landing at the island of Limasaua which is at theentrance of that Strait. Amazed by the novelty and strangeness of the [Spanish] nation and the ships, the barbarians of that island welcomed them and gave them good refreshments. “While at Limasaua, enjoying rest and good treatment, they heard of the River of Butuan, whose chieftain was more powerful. His reputation attracted our men thither to see for themselves or be disillusioned, their curiosity sharpened by the fact that the place was nearby. The barbariqan [chief] lived up to our men’s expectations, providing them with the food they needed....Magellan contented himself with having them do reverence to the cross which is erected upon a hillock as a sign to future generations of their alliance....
The solemnity with which the cross was erected and the deep piety shown by the Spaniards, and by the natives following the example of the Spaniards, engendered great respect for the cross. “Not finding in Butuan the facilities required by the ships, they returned to Limasaua to seek further advice in planning their future route. The Prince of Limasaua told them of the three most powerful nations among the Pintados [Visayans], namely those of Caraga, Samar, and Zebu. The nearness of Zebu, the facilities of its port, and the more developed social structure (being more monarchial) aroused everyone’s desire to go thither. Thus, guided by the chief of Limasaua, passing between Bool and Leyte and close to the Camotes Islands, they entered the harbor of Cebu by the Mandawe entrance on the 7th of April 1521, having departed from Limasaua on the first day of that month.” The notion that Limasawa is Mazaua was first suggested by ex-Augustinian priest, Carlo Amoretti, who had not read what Combés had written about Limasawa. As shown by what he wrote as quoted above, Combés was ignorant of the Mazaua story. He thought the anchorage of Magellan's fleet was Butuan, rather than Mazaua, the real port.
Present-day Limasawa could well be Gatighan as described by Pigafetta, though this assertion has yet to be proven or disproven. Philippine historian José S. Arcilla, who believes Limasawa is "site of the first mass" as all Jesuit historians in the Philippines do, explicitly asserts that Magellan did not visit Gatighan.
In Pigafetta's map Gatighan is northwest of Mazaua. If Mazaua is an island at 9° North, then Gatighan is exactly where Limasawa is today; Gatighan is shown in Pigafetta's map as sandwiched between Bohol and Ceylon (today's Panaon), it is the only land mass between these two places. Limasawa is exactly between these two land masses.
JOSE ARJAY A. ACUYADO
BSA 1
for me i believe that the first christian mass was held in the butuan masau, why? because theres a proof evidence that this mass is held in butuan masau,unlike pigafetta said that the mass is held in limasawa but that account was only a publication of pigafetta and there is no lot of evidence that, that mass is held in limasawa.
On 31 March 1521 Magellan ordered the expedition's chaplain, Fray Pedro de Valderrama, to celebrate Easter Sunday mass. It was only a few days after the blood compact between Magellan and Rajah Kolambu of Leyte; because of this alliance, the rajah allowed Magellan and his men to come ashore to celebrate mass. Rajah Kolambu was also invited to the mass along with Rajah Siagu of Butuan, his brother.
The mass was then attended by the two rajahs, Magellan, and members of the crew, among them Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra, and Francisco Albo who would thereafter write accounts of the first mass.
According to Pigafetta's account, Magellan “threw much rose muscat water over those two kings,” largely interpreted as the baptism of the two rajahs. The two rajahs then participated in the mass, kissing the cross in the same way as the members of the expedition did, and receiving communion. After the mass, Magellan asked that a cross be installed at the highest peak, explaining that the cross would defend them from harm. To this the two rajahs agreed, and the cross was set up on two hills on the western side of Limasawa.
Controversy
he exact location of the first mass has been disputed for decades, primarily between two locations: Limasawa, and Masao, Butuan.
In the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, the spot of the first mass was believed to be Masao, Butuan, with even a marker commemorating the event installed there in 1872. The claim was founded on two works: the Labor evangelica of Francisco Colin, S.J., pubslihed in Madrid in 1663; and the Historia de Mindanao y Jolo by Francisco Combes, S.J., also published in Madrid in 1667. While Combes did not mention the first mass at all in his account, Colin claims that it was held in Masao; Combes only notes that the planting of the cross , which was done at the same time as the Mass, was done in Masao.
Later historians until the nineteenth century, such as Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga to John Foreman and Wenceslao Retana, would base their works on these accounts and further strengthen the Masao claim.
It was only with the publication of Antonio Pigafetta's account of the expedition in the Ambrosian Codex in 1894 that opinions started to favor the Limasawa claim. Citing evidence such as the maps made by Pigafetta, the geographical description of the island, and the Albo logbook, later historians such as Trindad Pardo de Tavera; Pablo Pastells, S.J.; and Emma Blair and James Robertson came to support the Limasawa claim.
However, those of the pro-Butuan camp would continue to dispute the Limasawa claim. Independent scholar Vicente C. De Jesus said that these historians do not consider the eyewitness account of Gines de Mafra, one of the voyagers, which bolsters the Butuan claim. He would also claim that some parts of the Ambrosiana Codex, on which the Limasawa claim was founded, was largely mistranslated.
Historian Gregorio Zaide, who originally supported the Limasawa claim, also claimed that
“It is high time for contemporary historians and the Philippine government to correct their mistake and accept that the first Christian mass was celebrated in Masao, Butuan, Agusan del Norte and not in Limasawa, Leyte, on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521.”
in the preface of his later works. Other historians, like then National Historical Institute Chairman Esteban A. de Ocampo and Far Eastern University Professor Celedonio O. Resurrecion also acknolwedged the mistake.
This led the NHI to convene a symposium on the issue at the National Libra.
Jona Rose Escopel
BSE-ENG
Mass is a religious ceremony of the communion.Ferdinand Magellan's expedition brought many good things in the Philippines like he brought the cristianism in the Philippines and his expedition also the reason why we are going to celebrate 500th year of the first mass held in the Philippines.In connection of this first mass it is still debatable in where really is the first mass happened.In Limasawa or Butuan.
In what i have research I found out that the first mass in the Philippines was on Easter Sunday dated March 31,1521,in an island named Mazaua by eyewitness Antonio Pigafetta the chronicle in Magellan's Expedition,Gines de Mafra,Francisco Albo,the Genoese pilot and Martin de Ayamonte at a location today universally and mistakenly believed to be Limasawa a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province.Southern Leyte is where Ferdinand Magellan landed first and also said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country.
The historical event,viewed largely in it's religious context in the Philippines but more comprehensively in it's global context as a fleeting episode of the 1,081 day circumnavigation of the world came to pass when Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and his Armanda de molucca of three sailing ships landed in the western port of the island of Mazaua and not Limasawa.Antonio Pigafetta has the biggest role in Magellan's Expedition because he was the historian who wrote all the data or the things that Magellan is doing in their expedition.Carlo Amoretti was a conservator at the Ambrosiana Library at Milan where he discovered the lost Italian manuscript of Pigafetta in 1798.Amoretti lost no time transcribing the codex.Amoretti in a footnote said Magellan's mazaua maybe Limasava found in the map of the Philippines by Jacques N. Bellin.Magellan's scholars and navigation historians,with the sole exception of french maritime historian Leonce Peillard have universally accepted amoretti's dictum.In the Philippines this dictum altered by historians who rephrased Amoretti's assertion by removing the name Mazaua and replacing it with the phrase "site of the first mass".This summed up by the classic proposition."Where is the site of the first mass",Limasawa or Butuan?Carlo Amoretti's autorship is also omitted so that in historical studies on the Mazaua incident Amoretti is the unhearedof,unsung,unhonored author of a famous dictum.This question is a fallacious dilemma,Mazaua is being acquitted with Butuan that is not an island.
The place name Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage.Limasawa is a neologism or an invention by Fr.Francisco Combes S.J.
Both combes and collin had adopted 1536 story originated with Giovanni Battista Ramusio that the island where Magellan's fleet landed was Butuan.Ramusio in translating a french text of Antonio Pigafetta had erroneously replaced Mazaua with "Buthuan" w/c appears as Butuan in the authentic account of Pigafettaof w/c there are four manuscript that have survived.From 1536 until the 19th century Ramusio's Butuan error was reflected in historical accounts Magellan's sojourn in Philippine water.There are a number of versions,the one adopted by Collin talks of a mass in Buthuan,it does not mention any mass anywhere in the archipelago of San Lazaro.Because of this researches that i have made and read,I was convinced that the first mass was held at Butuan and not in Limasawa.
On June 19, 1960 The limasawa Law or the 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) was passed by Congress declaring "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 Philippines."Unknown to the lawmakers the basis of the law was Amoretti's equating Pigafetta's Mazaua with Combés's "Limasaua" which four years earlier Colín called "Dimasaua" expressly to signify it is not Mazaua. But still it was a law and implemented, even though that there are many factual relation presented disputing the Limasawa as the site of the first mass was held, base on the wikipedia article that I have read saying that the site was really in Mazaua instead of Limasawa. One of the convincing theory is comparing the archeological structure of the bay side between Limasawa and Mazaua.
"Limasawa is fringed by a narrow, steep-to reef off which the water is too deep to afford good anchorage for large vessels." Mazaua was a port with an excellent anchorage.
Next was the distance of the Mazaua from the first landing point which is the Islet of Humuno (homonhon) that according to a primary records, the expedition traveled 20-25 leagues. It is also mentioned that the king arrived to their ship in a balanghai, Mazaua in fact has a tradition of balangai, limasawa doesn’t have. And the entire of this are written in the diary of Antonio Pigafetta the chronicler of Ferdinand Magellan. As a Christian it is really important me to know where was the site of the first mass was held here in the Philippines because this is were it began, how the Filipino people embrace the Christianity bought by Magellan and making the Philippines as a Christian country for having almost 90% of the population was a Christian.
LLENO, GENNIE A
BSBA-II
Jude Marck S. Bagsao
BSE-Eng
Philippine History, Politics and Governance
Assignment no. 2
First of all, I don’t care where and when the first mass was held here in the Philippines. Because, now I don’t go to church and I don’t believe in Church. But I do believe and have Faith on God. It starts when I feel that every words say of the Priest are no longer exist. Because they don’t practice what they preach.
For so many years they've been lying to ourselves. Overwritten the scripts. Praying to our so called precious stones. I'm so tired of stupid stupid rituals. They just taunting us. Following their own words. Not His teachings. I felt nothing. I always searching for the truth. But all they gave were all Lies.
The first mass in the Philippines was on Easter Sunday March 31, 1521[1] in an island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo, the Genoese pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte, at a location today universally—and mistakenly—believed to be Limasawa, a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province, and is said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_mass_in_the_Philippines
By the way, based on what I understand and what I had read about where and when the First Mass was held. I think it is in Limasawa . Even the words doesn’t exist on account of Magellan's voyage.
Jude Marck S. Bagsao
BSE-Eng
Philippine History, Politics and Governance
Assignment no. 2
First of all, I don’t care where and when the first mass was held here in the Philippines. Because, now I don’t go to church and I don’t believe in Church. But I do believe and have Faith on God. It starts when I feel that every words say of the Priest are no longer exist. Because they don’t practice what they preach.
For so many years they've been lying to ourselves. Overwritten the scripts. Praying to our so called precious stones. I'm so tired of stupid stupid rituals. They just taunting us. Following their own words. Not His teachings. I felt nothing. I always searching for the truth. But all they gave were all Lies.
The first mass in the Philippines was on Easter Sunday March 31, 1521[1] in an island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo, the Genoese pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte, at a location today universally—and mistakenly—believed to be Limasawa, a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province, and is said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_mass_in_the_Philippines
By the way, based on what I understand and what I had read about where and when the First Mass was held. I think it is in Limasawa . Even the words doesn’t exist on account of Magellan's voyage.
Jude Marck S. Bagsao
BSE-Eng
Philippine History, Politics and Governance
Assignment no. 2
First of all, I don’t care where and when the first mass was held here in the Philippines. Because, now I don’t go to church and I don’t believe in Church. But I do believe and have Faith on God. It starts when I feel that every words say of the Priest are no longer exist. Because they don’t practice what they preach.
For so many years they've been lying to ourselves. Overwritten the scripts. Praying to our so called precious stones. I'm so tired of stupid stupid rituals. They just taunting us. Following their own words. Not His teachings. I felt nothing. I always searching for the truth. But all they gave were all Lies.
The first mass in the Philippines was on Easter Sunday March 31, 1521[1] in an island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo, the Genoese pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte, at a location today universally—and mistakenly—believed to be Limasawa, a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte province, and is said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_mass_in_the_Philippines
By the way, based on what I understand and what I had read about where and when the First Mass was held. I think it is in Limasawa . Even the words doesn’t exist on account of Magellan's voyage.
Eyewitness and secondhand accounts all state the island-port of March-April 1521 was named Mazaua. This is where the Easter Sunday mass of March 31, 1521 was held. No primary or secondary account refers to a Limasawa or Butuan as the port where this event took place. To best understand how this confusion came about, pls click https://picasaweb.google.com/103135314023445858830/AmbethOcampoSLimasawaHoaxOhWhatATangledWebWeWeaveWhenFirstWePractiseToDeceive
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