First mass in the Philippines - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The first mass in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

was on Easter Sunday March 31, 1521 in an island named Mazaua by eyewitnesses Antonio Pigafetta

Antonio Pigafetta

Antonio Pigafetta was an Italian scholar and explorer from the Republic of Venice. He travelled with the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew on their voyage to the Indies. During the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant and kept an accurate journal which later assisted him...

, Ginés de Mafra

Gines de Mafra

Ginés de Mafra was a Spanish explorer who sailed to the Philippines in the 16th century. De Mafra was a member of the expeditions of Ferdinand Magellan of 1519–1521 and Ruy López de Villalobos of 1542–1545.- Voyage to the Philippine Islands:...

, Francisco Albo, the Genoese pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte

Martín de Ayamonte

Martín de Ayamonte, also called by his Portuguese name Martinho de Aiamonte, was an apprentice seaman in the Armada de Molucca under the command of the Portuguese mariner Ferdinand Magellan....

, at a location today universally—and mistakenly—believed to be Limasawa, a town islet to the tip of Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Maasin City is the capital of the province. Southern Leyte was once a sub-province of Leyte before it was divided from the latter...

province, and is said to be the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the country.now Butuan City

The historical event, viewed largely in its religious context in the Philippines but more comprehensively in its global context as a fleeting episode of the 1,081-day circumnavigation of the world, came to pass when Portuguese

Portuguese people

The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....

navigator

Navigator

A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the Captain or aircraft Commander of estimated timing to...

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....

and his Armada de Molucca of three sailing ships, landed in the western port of the island of Mazaua.

Combés invents the word "Limasawa"

The placename Limasawa is not found in any primary or secondary account of Magellan's voyage. It is not found in any language of the Philippines. It may be traced only as far back as 1667 in a historical study of the evangelization of southern Philippines, specifically Mindanao, Historia de Mindanao y Joló, por el p. Francisco Combés ... Obra publicada en Madrid en 1667, written by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. The word Limasaua is shown once on one plate of the book and five times on the next plate, which describes Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters.

This placename, Limasawa, is the name of a isle west of Panaon, in Southeast Leyte, and east of Bohol

Bohol

Bohol is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, consisting of Bohol Island and 75 minor surrounding islands. Its capital is Tagbilaran City. With a land area of and a coastline long, Bohol is the tenth largest island of the Philippines...

. Four years before Combés, in 1664, the same isle was named Dimasaua

Dimasaua

Dimasaua, also spelled Dimasawa and Dimasava, was the invented name created by 17th century Spanish missionary Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., pointing to a tiny isle in southern Leyte whose chief, according to Colín, "gave the most signal service" to Ferdinand Magellan and his crew at the port of...

by Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., to signify that it was not the island "Mazagua" where an Easter mass was reported by Spanish historian Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas , Spanish historian, was born at Cuéllar, in the province of Segovia.-Biography:His father, Roderigo de Tordesillas, and his mother, Agnes de Herrera, were both of good family...

. De Herrera is the only historian whose faithful account of the Mazaua incident with the correct name—Mazaua, or as pronounced, "masawa"—was ever published from the 16th century up to the very start of 1933 when the eyewitness account of Martín de Ayamonte saw print. Ayamonte's spelling of the name was "Maçava" with a cedilla c, with a tail, which was an archaic form of the sound s, and v with the value w which is absent in the alphabets of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and other Romance languages.

Both Combés and Colín had adopted a 1536 story originating with Giovanni Battista Ramusio

Giovanni Battista Ramusio

Giovanni Battista Ramusio was an Italian geographer and travel writer.Born in Treviso, Italy, Ramusio was the son of Paolo Ramusio, a magistrate in the city-state of Venice...

that the island where Magellan's fleet landed was Butuan. Ramusio, in translating a French text of Antonio Pigafetta, had erroneously replaced Mazaua with "Buthuan" which appears as "Butuan" in the authentic account of Antonio Pigafetta of which there are four manuscripts that have survived. (All the four extant manuscripts are mere copies of originals.) From 1536 until the 19th century, Ramusio's "Buthuan" error was reflected in historical accounts of Magellan's sojourn in Philippine waters. There are a number of versions of Ramusio, the one adopted by Colín talks of a mass in "Buthuan"; this version is represented by the English translation of Richard Eden

Richard Eden

Richard Eden was an alchemist and translator. His translations of the geographic works of other writers helped foster a spirit of overseas exploration in Tudor England.-Early life:...

contained in pages 255-256, Three English books on America. [? 1511] - 1555 A.D. Being chiefly Translations, Compilations, &c., by Richard Eden, From the Writings, Maps, &c., of… (1885), Publisher: Birmingham, [Printed by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh]. The one adopted by Combés is a version of Ramusio represented by the English translation by Samuel Purchas

Samuel Purchas

Samuel Purchas , was an English travel writer, a near-contemporary of Richard Hakluyt.Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex, and graduated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1600; later he became a B.D., and with this degree was admitted at Oxford in 1615. In 1604 he was presented by James I to the...

—it does not mention any mass anywhere in the archipelago of San Lazaro

San Lazaro

San Lazaro is an archaeological site of pueblos in the U.S. state of New Mexico.It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. At that time it was declared:-External links:*, at Historic American Building Survey...

.

Along the same spirit of invention, there were others who came up with their own imagined names and various spellings: Limasaoa, Limasana, Limasagua, Dimasaua, Dimasava, Dimasagua, Simasaua.

Carlo Amoretti equates Combés's Limasawa with Pigafetta's Mazaua'

This error—replacing Mazaua with "Buthuan" or Butuan—was detected in 1800 by Carlo Amoretti who, unfortunately, made his own geographical blunder. He equated Magellan's Mazaua with Combés's Limasawa.

Carlo Amoretti was a conservator at the Ambrosiana Library at Milan where he discovered the lost Italian manuscript of Pigafetta in 1798. Amoretti lost no time transcribing the codex. Amoretti, in a footnote, said Magellan's Mazaua may be the "Limasava" found in the map of the Philippines by Jacques N. Bellin. He asserted both Limasawa and Mazaua are in Pigafetta's latitude 9° 40' North. This is patently wrong. Limasawa is at 9° 56 minutes N; while Mazaua was spotted at three different latitudes, Pigafetta's 9° 40' North, at Francisco Albo's 9° 20' North, and The Genoese Pilot's 9° North. A second-hand source, Antonio de Brito, the Portuguese squadron leader who seized flagship Trinidad at Amboina, wrote a report to the Portuguese king that Mazaua was at 9° North, information derived from captured documents. Scholars assume Brito's source was The Genoese Pilot, a belief not supported by concrete evidence but is nevertheless unchallenged.

Magellan scholars and navigation historians, with the sole exception of French maritime historian Leonce Peillard, have universally accepted Amoretti's dictum. In the Philippines, this dictum was altered by historians who rephrased Amoretti's assertion by removing the name "Mazaua" and replacing it with the phrase "site of the first mass." This is summed up by the classic proposition, "Where is the site of the first mass, Limasawa or Butuan?" Carlo Amoretti's authorship is also omitted so that in historical studies on the Mazaua incident Amoretti is the unheard of, unsung, unhonoured author of a famous dictum. This question is a fallacious dilemma, Mazaua is being equated with an island without anchorage, Limasawa; just as erroneous is its being equated with Butuan that is not an island. Mazaua was an island with an excellent harbor. Apropos to anchorage, the Coast Pilot of 1927 published by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey states, "Limasawa is fringed by a narrow, steep-to reef off which the water is too deep to afford good anchorage for large vessels."

Both Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. and Carlo Amoretti had read not one single eyewitness account, save, in the case of the latter, the Italian extant manuscript known as the Ambrosiana codex. Most important they both had not read the account of Ginés de Mafra, the only crewmember who came back to Mazaua in 1543, staying there with 99 other crewmates for six months. The Magellan visit was only for 7 days. Ginés de Mafra was part of the expedition under the command of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos

Ruy López de Villalobos

Ruy López de Villalobos was a Spanish explorer who sailed the Pacific from Mexico to establish a permanent foothold for Spain in the East Indies, which was near the Line of Demarcation between Spain and Portugal according to the Treaty of Saragossa in 1529...

. In his testimony, de Mafra said the port of Mazaua was west of the island, This contradicts the now-popular belief it was east, as affirmed four times by the National Historical Institute of the Philippines. On June 19, 1960, Republic Act No. 2733, called the "Limasawa Law", was enacted without being signed by the President of the Philippines. The legislative fiat declared "The site in Magallanes, Limasawa Island in the Province of Leyte, where the first Mass in the Philippines was held is hereby declared a national shrine to commemorate the birth of Christianity in the Philippines." Magallanes is east of the island of Limasawa.

In 1995 then Congresswoman Ching Plaza of Agusan del Norte-Butuan City filed a bill in Congress contesting the Limasawa hypothesis and asserting the "site of the first mass" was Butuan. (It will be seen here that up to this point no one save historian William Henry Scott had suspected the Butuan notion came from the garbled translation of Pigafetta by Giovanni Battista Ramusio). The Committee on Education of Congress forwarded the question to the National Historical Institute which prompted it to form the Gancayco Panel headed by then retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Emilio Gancayco which, in 1998, issued a resolution in favor of Limasawa Island claim. The Chair of NHI, Dr. Samuel K. Tan, in 1998 categorically stated in a press conference and in a letter addressed to Vicente C. de Jesus that NHI was adopting the Gancayco "Resolution." The exact text of Tan's letter reads: "April 6. 1998/ Dear Mr. De Jesus,/Please find attached copy of the Resolution of the Hearing Panel on the First mass issue. The National Historical Institute is adopting said Resolution. With kind regards, Sincerely yours, SAMUEL K. TAN, Chairman and Executive Director." Historians who have written on the "first mass" controversy thereafter invoked this decision of the National Historical Institute, among them Peter Schreurs, Rolando O. Borrinaga, as the final word on the issue. In 2006, Father Joesilo Amalla, curator of Butuan

Butuan City

The City of Butuan is the regional center of Caraga, serving as an administrative region of the Philippines; it is a highly urbanized city. It is located at the northeastern part of Agusan Valley, Mindanao, sprawling across the Agusan River. It is bounded to the north, west and south by Agusan del...

Diocesan Liturgical Museum, resolved to petition the National Historical Institute (NHI) to study "new evidence" indicating that the first Mass in the Philippines was held in his Agusan del Norte

Agusan del Norte

Agusan del Norte is a province of the Philippines located in the Caraga, a region in Mindanao. Its capital is Cabadbaran City and it borders Surigao del Norte to the north, Surigao del Sur to the east, Agusan del Sur to the south, and Misamis Oriental to the west...

province and not on Limasawa Island, Southern Leyte

Southern Leyte

province. Father Amalla also serves as trustee of the Butuan City Cultural and Historical Foundation Inc. (BCHFI). Journals of an early Spanish expedition record that a Mass took place on "Mazaua," but the historical foundation contended that the Mass was held in Masao, a spit and not an island that is part of Butuan. Mazaua was an island surrounded by sea water and had an area, according to Ginés de Mafra, of three to four leguas (9 to 12 square nautical miles) which converts to an area of from 2213 up to 3930 hectares. Masao was a mangrove facing Butuan Bay and was never and is not an island.

Mazaua, an island-port, Limasawa, an island with no suitable anchorage

Magellan and his Armada found ready anchorage at Mazaua. So did Ginés de Mafra and his 90+ crewmates. So did Bernardo de la Torre and his men in April of 1544. So did Garcia Escalante de Alvarado in October 1544.

On the other hand, the Coast Pilot describe Limasawa as having no suitable anchorage. The Coast Pilot of 1927 published by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey states, "Limasawa is fringed by a narrow, steep-to reef off which the water is too deep to afford good anchorage for large vessels."

Two dissimilar islands, one with a good anchorage and the other with no anchorage, cannot be one and the same.

Landing on Philippine shores

When Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....

and his European crew sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda for an expedition to search for spices, these folks 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 where they anchored.

Blood compact

The island was ruled by Rajah Siaiu. When Magellan and comrades set foot on the grounds of Mazaua, he befriended the king together with his brother Rajah Colambu of Butuan. In those days, it was customary among Filipinos—and in most of southeast Asia—to seal friendship with a blood compact. On instigation of Magellan who had heard the Malayan term for it, casi casi, the new friends performed the ritual. Ginés de Mafra gave the most vivid description of the incident: "[They] drew blood from the chests of both men, to toss it into a glass so that the blood unites, to mix it with wine, then [for] both to drink a half." This was the first recorded blood compact between Filipino

Filipino people

The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

s and Spaniard

Spanish people

The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

s. Gifts were exchanged by the two parties when the celebration had ended.

First mass

On March 31, 1521, an Easter Sunday, Magellan ordered a mass to be celebrated which was officiated by Friar Pedro Valderrama, the Andalusion chaplain of the fleet, the only priest then. The other priest, the French Bernard Calmette (Bernardo Calmeta) had been marooned at Patagonia with Juan de Cartagena for being implicated in the mutiny at San Julian. Conducted near the shores of the island, the Holy First Mass marked the birth of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines. Colambu and Siaiu were the first natives of the archipelago, which was not yet named "Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

" until the expedition of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos in 1543, to attend the mass among other Mazaua inhabitants, together with visitors from Butuan who came with the entourage of Rajah Colambu, king of Butuan.

Planting of the cross

On the same day, Magellan instructed his comrades to plant a cross on the top of the hill overlooking the sea, southwest of the island as shown in the map of Mazaua in all the extant French manuscripts of Antonio Pigafetta, i.e., MSS Nancy-Libri-Phillipps-Beinecke-Yale, 5650 and 24224. Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, who recorded the event said:

"After the cross was erected in position, each of us repeated a Pater Noster and an Ave Maria, and adored the cross; and the kings [Kulambo and Siaiu] did the same."

Magellan then took ownership of the islands where he had landed in the name of King Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

which he had named earlier on March 16 Archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

of St. Lazarus because it was the day of the saint when the Armada reached the archipelago.

Proclamation of the national shrine

In 1800, Carlo Amoretti, a conservator,i.e., "Dottori del Collegio Ambrosiano" at the Ambrosiana library in Milan, published his transcription of a newly discovered authentic extant manuscript, the only extant codex in Italian of Antonio Pigafetta

Antonio Pigafetta

. In his edition of what is now popularly called the Ambrosiana codex, Amoretti equated Mazaua—which he called "Messana" and/or "Massana," the name popularized by Maximilianus Transylvanus

Maximilianus Transylvanus

Maximilianus Transylvanus , also Maximilianus of Transylvania and Maximilian von Sevenborgen , was a sixteenth century author based in Flanders who wrote the earliest account published on Magellan and Elcano's first circumnavigation of the world...

—with Combés's Limasawa. In 1905, Philippines scholar James A. Robertson translated Pigafetta's manuscript for the Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, a 55-volume collection of Spanish documents on Philippine history translated into English and transcribed, translated, annotated and edited by himself. In the translation, based on the Italian transcription by Andrea da Mosto which finally established the text of the Italian manuscript, Robertson asserted in footnote No. 26 in volume 33 that "Mazaua" was "now called the island of Limasawa." In actuality, Robertson was paraphrasing the dictum of Carlo Amoretti

Carlo Amoretti

Carlo Amoretti was an ecclesiastic, scholar, writer, and scientist. He was born in Oneglia, now Imperia in the Liguria region, Italy.He entered the Augustinian order in 1757...

,except that he used the correct name, "Mazaua" and not "Messana" or "Massana" which Amoretti used interchangeably.

To be precise, Amoretti's surmise was that "Messana" may be the "Limasava" found in the map of Jacques N. Bellin. This map was a copy of Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde's which for the first time shows an island sandwiched between Bohol

Bohol

and Panaon

Panaon

Panaon can refer to* Panaon Island, an island of the Philippines in the province of Southern Leyte* Panaon, Misamis Occidental, a municipality on the island of Mindanao, Philippines...

, the southmost island of Leyte. Limasava (the value of v is w which is absent in the Spanish alphabet) was the placename invented or fabricated by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J., who had not read a single primary or secondary account of Magellan's expedition. His view of the Magellan voyage was based on the corrupted version of Antonio Pigafetta's account written by Giovanni Battista Ramusio

Giovanni Battista Ramusio

Giovanni Battista Ramusio was an Italian geographer and travel writer.Born in Treviso, Italy, Ramusio was the son of Paolo Ramusio, a magistrate in the city-state of Venice...

. Ramusio wrote that the anchorage of Magellan's fleet from March 28-April 4, 1521 was "Buthuan". In one version Ramusio wrote in "Buthuan" an Easter mass was held by Magellan, his men, and inhabitants there. Ramusio replaced Mazaua with "Buthuan". Combés dismissed the version of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas

who wrote a faithful story of the incident which names the island-port of Magellan's fleet as Mazaua. Combés also dismissed the name "Dimasava" given to the same Leyte isle by Fr. Francisco Colín, S.J., five years earlier in 1663. Like Combés, Colín also had dismissed de Herrera in favor of Ramusio. Colín's version of Ramusio talks of a mass held on March 31, 1521; Combés's had another version which talks of no mass at all. Combés is a negation of de Herrera's Mazaua, where an Easter mass was held. Colín's Dimasava means "this is not the island where a mass was held." The prefix "di" is Bisaya for "not" or "no." Since Combés story does not talk of a mass being held anywhere, he coined another word by using a different prefix, "Li" which is absent in any Philippine language or Spanish. Limasawa is a pure invention.

On June 19, 1960, Republic Act No. 2733 was passed by Congress declaring "... Magallanes, Limasawa Island in the Province of Leyte, where the first Mass in the Philippines was held is hereby declared a national shrine to commemorate the birth of Christianity in the Philippines."
^ Unknown to the lawmakers the basis of the law was Amoretti's equating Pigafetta's Mazaua with Combés's "Limasaua" which four years earlier Colín called "Dimasaua" expressly to signify it is not Mazaua.

The law and the flawed historiography behind it remains. It has been reaffirmed more than four times by the Philippines' National Historical Institute (NHI). The framework against which the NHI has viewed the issue is expressed in the proposition, "Where is the site of the first mass in the Philippines, Limasawa or Butuan?" In the most comprehensive study so far undertaken on the issue by Vicente Calibo de Jesus, he showed that this question consists of the fallacy of the false dichotomous question or the fallacy of the false dilemma. It limits the reader to choose between two erroneous or false alternatives: Limasawa that has no anchorage, and Butuan which is not an island. Mazaua was a port with an excellent anchorage.

Dispute

In 1995 a bill was filed by then Congresswoman Charito B. Plaza of Agusan del Norte claiming the Easter mass on March 31, 1521 was held at Butuan not Limasawa. The bill's contention was that the wooden boat called "balanghai" dug up at Butuan proved it was Mazaua.

The Philippine Congress referred the matter to the National Historical Institute (NHI) for it to study the issue and recommend a historical finding. The NHI created a panel headed by retired Associate Supreme Court Justice Emilio Gangcayco, and members Bartolome C. Fernandez Jr. and Dr. Ma. Luisa T. Camagay, and ex-officio members, Dr. Samuel K. Tan, Chairman-Executive Director, NHI; Asst. Director Emelita V. Almosara; and Prof. Augusto V. de Viana, who was secretary of the Panel and keeps the minutes of all the Panel meetings. No panel members were experienced in Magellan historiography or in Renaissance navigation history except Dr. Tan who co-wrote a five-page article with

In the course of the two-year investigation by the NHI, the Ginés de Mafra account was claimed to be discovered by Vicente Calibo de Jesus who advised the panel of the implications of de Mafra's testimony among which was that Mazaua was an island separated from 1521 Butuan by some 45 nautical miles (83.3 km), that the port was located west of Mazaua and that it had a good anchorage, and that the circumference of the isle was 3-4 leagues or 9 to 12 nautical miles (22.2 km). Another claim of de Jesus was that Limasawa, according to the Philippine Coast Pilot,had no anchorage.

In the morning of Tuesday, December 17, 1996 the entire NHI panel met to deliberate on the various studies submitted by the pro-Limasawa and by then pro-Mazaua sides. The panel accepted the findings of Mr. de Jesus, especially his analysis of the testimony of Ginés de Mafra changing the parameters of the whole discussion. Whereas before de Mafra it was a question of whether the harbor was Limasawa or Butuan it now became clear that Mazaua was an island separate from Butuan and that it had a precise area and good anchorage.

On March 31, 1998, the National Historical Institute chose to adopt the finding of the Gancayco Panel which dismissed the Ginés de Mafra account as fake and forthwith unilaterally reverted the discussion to pre-de Mafra context which was back to whether the site of the first mass was Limasawa, the isle without anchorage, or Butuan, which is not an isle. The NHI reaffairmed its previous pronouncements that Limasawa is Magellan's port.

The findings of the National Historical Institute is printed in full in the discussion section of the article on Ginés de Mafra at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gin%C3%A9s_de_Mafra.

Its exact status is uncertain. On the day NHI announced to the media the panel's finding, then NHI Chair-Executive Director Dr. Samuel K. Tan stated it was the official stand of the Institute. The finding is variously cited as such by Philippine historians. The NHI has not officially nor publicly disavowed it. Incumbent NHI Chair Ambeth R. Ocampo privately confide the Board of Directors has not approved the panel's finding. On March 27, 2006 Ocampo wrote a letter to Mr. Alfredo M. Rafanan, Secretary of the Provincial Board of Agusan del Norte, affirming NHI's past findings not excluding the Gancayco Panel's.

There is currently debate on the status and veracity of this report. On June 15, 2009 NHI Chair Ambeth R. Ocampo together with Benito J. Legarda Jr., Fr. Jose M. Cruz, SJ., Prudencia C. Cruz, Dr. Celestina Boncan of U.P., Prof. Ricardo Jose also of U.P., Serafin D. Quiazon, Corazon S. Alvina, Heidi K. Gloria, Pedro Picornell affirmed the NHI-Gancayco panel findings as valid with full knowledge of the anomalous method of the panel.

Legacy

The Christian religion brought by Magellan holds a distinction of being embraced by 94 percent of the Philippine population with 81 percent to the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, two percent composed of Protestant denominations and 11 percent either to the Philippine Independent Church

Philippine Independent Church

The Philippine Independent Church, The Philippine Independent Church, The Philippine Independent Church, (officially the or the IFI, also known as the Philippine Independent Catholic Church or in Ilocano: Siwawayawaya nga Simbaan ti Filipinas (in in Kinaray-a/Hiligaynon: Simbahan Hilway nga...

(Aglipayan), Iglesia ni Cristo

Iglesia ni Cristo

Iglesia ni Cristo also known as INC, is the largest entirely indigenous Christian religious organization that originated from the Philippines and the largest independent church in Asia. Due to a number of similarities, some Protestant writers describe the INC's doctrines as restorationist in...

and others. The remaining percentage belongs to Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

religion and others.

A new Shrine of the First Holy Mass, an edifice made of bricks and polished concrete, was erected on top of a hill overlooking the barangay Magallanes, Limasawa was inaugurated in 2005.

Limasawa celebrates the historic and religious coming of the Spaniards every March 31 with a cultural presentation and anniversary program dubbed as Sinugdan, meaning "beginning."

The story comes from Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J., that contains no reference at all to a Catholic mass being held on March 31, 1521. Indeed, his "Limassaua" was meant to signify that the southern Leyte isle was not the "Mazaua" in the historical account of Magellan's voyage of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas which Combés dismissed as untrue in favor of the garbled account of Giovanni Battista Ramusio who wrote the place of anchorage from March 31-April 4, 1521 was Butuan not Mazaua.

Combés had not read a single firsthand or eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage. His invention, "Limasawa", was meant to repudiate the idea the anchorage was Magellan's Mazaua since he thought it was "Buthuan" as Ramusio said.