MAIN ARGUMENT

• The first Catholic Mass in the Philippines was held on March 31, 1521, Easter
Sunday. It was said by Father Pedro de Valderrama along the shores of what
was referred to in the journals of Antonio Pigafetta as "Mazaua".
• Today, this site is widely believed by many to be Limasawa at the tip
of Southern Leyte, though this is contested by some who assert that the first
mass was instead held at Masao, Butuan.
• Odoric of Pordenone, an Italian and Franciscan friar and missionary explorer,
is heartily believed by many Pangasinenses to have celebrated the first mass
in Pangasinan in around 1324 that would have predated the mass held in
1521 by Ferdinand Magellan. A marker in front of Bolinao Church states that
the first Mass on Philippine soil was celebrated in Bolinao Bay in 1324 by
a Franciscan missionary, Blessed Odorico.
 BACKGROUND OF THE TOPIC
• When Ferdinand Magellan and his European crew sailed from San Lucar de
Barrameda for an expedition to search for spices, these explorers landed on the
Philippines after their voyage from other proximate areas. On March 28, 1521, while
at sea, they saw a bonfire which turned out to be Mazaua (believed to be today's
Limasawa) where they anchored.
 EVIDENCES FOR LIMASAWA
1. The evidence of Albo’s Logbook.
2. The evidence of Pigafetta.
a) Pigafetta’s testimony about the route
b) The evidence of Pigafetta’s map
c) The two native kings
d) The seven days at “Mazaua”
e) An argument for omission
3. Summary of the Evidence of Albo and Pigafetta
4. Confirmatory evidence from Legazpi’s Expidition
 EVIDENCES FOR MASAO
1. The name of the place
2. The route from Homonhon
3. The latitude position
4. The geographical features
a) The bonfire
b) The balanghai
c) House
d) Abundance of gold
e) A developed settlement
 INTERPRETATION
• Due to the evidences of the real eyewitnesses during the argued first mass in
the Philippines I think that the argument backs Limasawa as the true site
where it happened.
• The most complete and reliable account of the Magellan expedition into
Philippine shores in 1521 is that of Antonio Pigafetta which is deemed as the
only credible primary source of reports on the celebration of the first Christian
Mass on Philippine soil.
• James Robertson's English translation of the original Italian manuscript of
Pigaffeta's account is most reliable for being ''faithful'' to the original text as
duly certified by the University of the Philippines' Department of European
Language.
 INTERPRETATION
• Pigafetta's Mazaua, the site of the first Christian Mass held on Philippine soil, is an
island lying off the southwestern tip of Leyte while Masao in Butuan is not an island
but a barangay of Butuan City located in a delta of the Agusan River along the
coast of Northern Mindanao. The position of Mazaua, as plotted by Pigafetta,
matched that of Limasawa.
• The measurement of distances between Homonhon and Limasawa between
Limasawa and Cebu, as computed by the pro-Limasawa group, matches or
approximates the delineations made by Pigafetta of the distances between
Homonhon and Mazaua and between Mazaua and Cebu.
• Magellan's fleet took a route from Homonhon to Mazaua and from Mazaua to Cebu
that did not at any time touch Butuan or any other part of Mindanao. The docking
facilities at Limasawa did not pose any problem for Magellan's fleet which anchored
near or at some safe distance from the island of the eastern shore.