Skip to main content

Historical PH 1st Holy Mass: Mazaua Or Limasawa? Fr Amalla Vs Maria Serena Diokno Vs Ambeth Ocampo – And The Priest Is Right!

We Filipinos celebrate 500 years of Christianity today Wednesday, 31 March 2021, Christianity brought to pagans by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailing the seas for Spain. The historical question is: Where was the first Holy Mass celebrated: “Limasawa” (in Leyte) or “Mazaua” (in Butuan)?

Catholic priest Fr Joesilo C Amalla has just published the book (above), An Island They Called Mazaua, that argues the island of “Mazaua” in Butuan is the “true site of first Holy Mass in the Philippines[1]” and not “Limasawa” in Leyte (ANN, 07 January 2021, Manila Times). The declaration and discussion are made by Butuan-based Fr Amalla in his 644-page book. Among other things, he writes:

The truth is that the prevailing state- and church-affirmation and multiple reaffirmations of the island of Limasawa as the site of that first Holy Mass have no factual, historical and geographic (bases) whatsoever nor any shred of evidentiary support from cartographic studies, navigational information, and maritime history.

Limasawa is bogus! We Filipinos are celebrating 31 March 2021 as the quincentennial day of the very first Easter Sunday mass, in 1521, in the Philippines – we have a problem there: Fr Amalla is debunking the claim of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) that it occurred in Limasawa.

In reply, the NHCP said:

We reject the recently published book An Island They Called Mazaua (The Truth About The Site Of The First Holy Mass In The Philippines), 2021, as substantially misleading and methodologically erroneous. As historians and scholars, we therefore consider its findings and conclusions unacceptable.

Ah, but as a Roman Catholic myself and a creative writer who must deal with logic and ill-logic, I agree with Fr Amalla’s historical analysis – it is the NHCP’s history that is misleading and erroneous!

7 years ago, Vicente Calibo de Jesus published a petition addressed to Maria Serena I Diokno, then NHCP head, titled “Stop Peddling The Limasawa ‘First Mass’ Hoax,” saying among other things:

The first recorded Christian mass was held on Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521 at a little island-port named Mazaua. Two identical accounts report this event, by eyewitness Antonio Pigafetta (1523) and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1601). "Masawa" is a word found only in Butuanon and its scion, Tausog, out of 181 Philippine languages. It means “brilliant light and crystal clear.”

Earlier, Fr Amalla says that in 2008, he could not convince National Historical Institute (now NHCP) head Ambeth Ocampoof the validity of Mazaua over Limasawa. He further says:

This is urgent. Hundreds of millions of pesos are being earmarked and already being spent by government, eg, Department of Tourism, the local government of Southern Leyte, etc, in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the "first mass" in 2021. We're not even putting in what the Catholic Church will spend. This is money from our poor people. Let it not be squandered honoring a ghost event at Limasawa.

In the Philippines, the first Holy Mass was held in Mazaua, period.@517


[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/01/07/campus-press/new-book-asserts-mazaua-island-in-butuan-true-site-of-first-holy-mass-in-the-philippines/823943/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

07, The More The Merrier – P1B From DA Supportive Of 10 Bataan Model Farms Leading PH Agriculture

Very optimistic – and excited – was Secretary of Agriculture William Dar after visiting 2 model 1-ha farms in the villages of Daang Bago and San Simon in the town of Dinalupihan, Bataan, Friday, 19 February 2021. He said in the DA news release “Bataan Model Farms Demonstrate Future Of Philippine Agriculture” (20 February 2021): I am thrilled to have seen the progress of this rice-high-value crops diversification system evolving in the Municipality of Dinalupihan. We were here when the idea was being conceived in 2019 and now it has really started its journey, its development. As an agriculturist and a communicator for development in the last 45 years, I know: That it is all markedly historical for the Philippines. The cropping calls for rice in the wet season, and high-value crops (vegetables) in the dry season, with fertigation (fertilization via irrigation). And the technology-setup is replicated 10 times in the same municipality. (I don’t know why, but 60-year old foreign-funde...
Post a Comment
Read more

03, The More The Merrier – PH Needs More Hogs In Manila, Less Critics!

“Pinoys absolutely love pork. Randomly enter a restaurant and there’s a fat chance you’ll sniff the rousing aroma of sizzling sisig , grilled liempo or if your host is big-time, lechon – a whole roasted pig!” That’s what Gregg Yan say s [1] (03 January 2020, Thepigsite.com ). Count me in! I just love to bite into the crispy skin of a lechon and never ever think of hypertension – I’m just lean & mean. (lower “Backyard Pig Farming” image [2]  from PCARRD.dost.gov.ph ) There is some unsolicited advice about what to do with the current problematic PH supply of pork because of the African Swine Fever (ASF), comment/advice slyly directed at Secretary of Agriculture William Dar . Thank you, but you are assuming Mr Dar has no “Whole-Hog Plan” if I may call it that. You don’t know Mr Dar has been a science manager for 33 years, up to and including his incredible stint as the longest-running Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (I...
Post a Comment
Read more