Position Paper Cite of First Mass
According to the claim of NHCP or National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the first
mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa, Southern Leyte on an eastern Sunday as it is also
declared in the Rep. Act 2733. According to the NHCP chair Reene Escalante, the panel agreed
that the proofs presented by the pro-Butuan advocates were not sufficient and pursuaising
enough to support their claims. Thus, the issue of the said historic mass was resolved by the
NHI and the forerunner of the NHCP through the panel experts, Supreme Court Justice Emilio
Gangayco and historian Benito Legarda.
The second argument that this paper wants to raise is the Legazpi Expedition. It is claimed that
Butuan is a riverine settlement near Agusan River. Clearly, the Magellan expedition and the first
mass was not held in the place for there was no any mention of the Agusan River. Mazaua is an
island and therefore it is surrounded by sea and not by a river delta.
The third point of this paper is the evidence of Pigaffeta’s maps. Both the Ambrosian and the
Nancy codices of Pigafetta’s narratives are explained with maps, diagrams, and sketches. But
Pigafetta was not a cartographer so his maps had no value as navigational guide. One such map
shows the Igre island of Samar, and the littler islands of Suluan, Abarien, Hinuangan and
"Humunu", which is likewise portrayed as "Aguadalybonisegnaly." The second map was a
double map. The one shows the island of Mindanao, the deep indentation, recognizably Panguil
Bay, and the east shows Butuan, Calagan, Benasan. The southern tip of Zamboanga, Basilan,
and the Sulu archipelago can be seen on the second map on the other hand. The third map
shows the most relevant to the investigation for it shows the island of Mazaua.
The fourth argument is when Magellan’s expedition stayed in the island of Mazaua for a week.
According to Pigaffeta, they stayed there for seven days and was written in the First Voyage
around the World by Pigafetta. In addition, at the point when Magellan showed up on the
island "Mazaua", they met two rulers. One is the King of Mazaua, and the other is the King of
Butuan. If Mazaua is Butuan for what reason would the King of Butuan be a guest in his own
domain. Consequently, this group firmly accepts that the island "Mazaua" where the primary
mass happened is in Limasawa and not in Butuan.
The following and and last contention is that Gines de Mafra, an individual from both the
Magellan campaign in 1521 and the Villalobos endeavor in 1543. He was dropped by Limasawa.
in two events. In 1543, he met again a similar chief,Rajah Kolambu, who got Magellan in 1521.
De Mafra's record had been covered up in a Madrid document for a very long time before it
was found and distributed in 1920. It referenced that the Magellan armada secured in Mazaua
at “a good harbor on its western side, and is inhabited.” De Mafra's case is confirmed by a guide
made by Antonio Pigafetta, recorder of the Magellan expedition, as per De Jesus. The guide in
the Nancy-Libri-Beinecke-Yale codex is said to show a cross in one of two slopes confronting the
ocean southwest of the island. The map of Pigafetta in the Beinecke manuscript shows that
there was a cross on the upper hill and the lower hill drawn on the land does not have the
symbol of the cross. An aerial photo of Limasawa Island shows the two conspicuous hills that
assert the tourist spots on Pigafetta's map in Beinecke's original copy. The hill on which
Magellan and his group raised a cross after the Easter Sunday Mass in 1521 was apparently the
upper hill set apart with a cross on the old map, and the one closest to Triana and neglects the
current town appropriate from the north
