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Limasawa - Butuan - Site of The First Mass - Revised

The document discusses the debate around whether the first Catholic mass in the Philippines took place in Limasawa island or Butuan. It examines evidence from historical accounts and documents from the 16th-17th centuries, including from Pigafetta and Albo who were part of Magellan's expedition. While earlier sources claimed Butuan as the site, more recent scholarship has shifted to supporting Limasawa based on closer analysis of these primary sources.

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Charles Navarro
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46 views11 pages

Limasawa - Butuan - Site of The First Mass - Revised

The document discusses the debate around whether the first Catholic mass in the Philippines took place in Limasawa island or Butuan. It examines evidence from historical accounts and documents from the 16th-17th centuries, including from Pigafetta and Albo who were part of Magellan's expedition. While earlier sources claimed Butuan as the site, more recent scholarship has shifted to supporting Limasawa based on closer analysis of these primary sources.

Uploaded by

Charles Navarro
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Module 5

Topic: “Butuan or Limasawa? The Site of the First Mass in the


Philippines: A Reexamination of the Evidence”
Source: Kinaadman: A Journal of Southern Philippines, Vol. III (1981), pp. 1-35.

Readings in Philippine History (Readphi)


• The site of the first Mass ever celebrated on Philippine soil

- Easter Sunday

- 31st of March 1521

• The planting of a wooden cross upon a hill’s summit


Subject of controversy: the identity of the place which Pigafetta calls

“Mazaua”

• the little island south of Leyte, called Limasawa?

• the beach called Masao at the mouth of the Agusan River in northern Mindanao,
near Butuan?
I. The Butuan Tradition
A. 17th Century
1. Father Francisco Colin S.J. – Labor evangelica, 1663
- “the first island they touched at was Humunu”;
- they gave the name San Lazaro to the entire Archipelago
- Magellan went first to Butuan, then to Limasawa and then to Cebu.
2. Father Francisco Combes S.J. - Historia de Mindanao y Jolo, 1667
- does not mention the first Mass
- mentions 1) the planting of the cross and
2) the formal claiming of the Archipelago on behalf of the Castilian crown
- Magellan visits Limasawa, goes to Butuan, returns to Limasawa,
and thence to Cebu
3. Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri
- Giro del Mondo (A Voyage Around the World)
4. Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga - Estadismo
B. 18th Century
1. fray Juan de la Concepcion – History of the Philippines
C. 19th Century
1. fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga - Historia de Filipinas, 1803
2. John Foreman – mentioned the first Mass in Butuan
3. a Dominican friar, Valentin Morales y Martin
4. Jose Montero y Vidal
– El Archipelago filipino, 1886; Historia general de Filipinas
5. Wenceslao Retana, 1893
- accepted the Butuan tradition
II. The Shift in Opinion
• Emma Blair and James Alexander Robertson - two Americans
- 55-volume collection of documents on the Philippine Islands, published from
1903 to 1909
• Father Pablo Pastells S.J. - Spanish Jesuit scholar
- Due to a rediscovery and a more attentive study of two primary sources on the
subject: 1) Pigafetta’s account and 2) Albo’s log
• The cause of the shift in opinion from Butuan to Limasawa was the publication in
1894 of Pigafetta’s account, as contained in the Ambrosian codex.
• The experience of Rizal - he came across Pigafetta’s work in the British Museum
III. The Evidence for Limasawa
1. The Evidence of Albo’s Log-Book
Francisco Albo
- joined the Magellan expedition as a pilot (“contramaestre”) in Magellan’s
flagship “Trinidad”; one of the eighteen survivors who returned with
Sebastian Elcano on the “Victoria” after having circumnavigated the world
2. The Evidence from Pigafetta
* The most complete account of the Magellan expedition is that by Antonio
Pigafetta entitled Primo viaggio intomo al mondo (First Voyage Around the World).
The Evidence from Pigafetta
(a) Pigafetta’s testimony regarding the route
(b) The evidence of Pigafetta’s maps
(c) The two native kings
(d) The seven days at “Mazaua”
(e) The argument from omission
3. The Legazpi Expedition
- Mazaua was an island near Leyte and Panaon; Butuan was on the island of
Mindanao. The two were entirely different places and in no way identical.
4. The geography of “Mazaua”
- The island is still referred to by the fisherfolk as “Masaoa”, not Limasawa.

IV. The Importance of Butuan


• To reject the Butuan claim is in no way to downgrade the cultural or historical
importance of Butuan.

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