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/