Pinpointing the first Mass in the Philippines

Philippines

Despite 500th anniversary celebrations recently, debate still rages as to where the event actually took place

Was it Dutch historian Pieter Geyl (1887-1966) who, being his provocative self, once described history as “an argument without end” in as much as to read and interpret history is to begin, not knowing when to end?

Philippine hero Jose Rizal’s controversial retraction from masonry falls under this category. There is also the historical dispute regarding the confessions allegedly made to priests by three women that led to the breaking of the seal of confession in 1896.

Did the Augustinian friar Mariano Gil violate “the sanctity of sacramental confession,” an act that paved the way for the untimely discovery of Bonifacio’s secret society called Katipunan? Arguments and counter-arguments on this matter continue without end.

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That the New Society, Bagong Lipunan, during the Marcos regime (1965-86) was the Philippine golden age of economic prosperity doesn’t fall under Geyl’s understanding of history as “an argument without end.”

Why? Because the Marcoses’ claim is obviously an attempt at historical revisionism and definitely a historical argument contrary to all evidence or, at the very least, “an argument without basis.”

What about the first Mass in the Philippines, arguably a thorny issue in the country’s history? It’s been 501 years this month since that first Holy Mass was celebrated and historians still make a lot of fuss about it.

Malvar’s studies on the 16th century Venetian scholar and chronicler Antonio Pigafetta’s manuscripts on the Magellan expedition led him to this conclusion

The four-centuries-old St. James the Great Church stands in the center of Bolinao. A historical marker in front of the church, definitely not one from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), asserts that the Italian missionary Blessed Odorico da Pordenone, OFM, said the first Mass in 1324 on his way to China in Bolinao Bay, Pangasinan, where they took refuge during a storm.

But American historian William Henry Scott denied after examining Odorico’s 14th-century writings that the Franciscan missionary likely set foot on Philippine soil. Scott said this in his book A Critical Study of the Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History, originally published in 1968.

In December 2020, Father Neil Tenefrancia of Borongan Diocese published a 15-page position paper on the supposed first Mass on Homonhon island off Eastern Samar based on liturgical but unrecorded assumptions.

Tenefrancia argued that Padre Pedro de Valderrama, the sole chaplain of the Magellan-Elcano expedition, supposedly celebrated it on March 17, 1521, a Sunday, when they landed in Homonhon, and on March 24, 1521, a Palm Sunday, and on March 25, 1521, an obligatory Feast of the Annunciation. The Mass should have been celebrated before they proceeded to Leyte, Tenefrancia theorized.

In 2021, Church historian Msgr. Lope C. Robredillo, also of Borongan Diocese, launched his book Homonhon Island, the Correct Site of the First Mass in the Philippines, a volume that claims that the first Mass in the Philippines was celebrated neither in Butuan nor on Limasawa Island, but in Homonhon, based on a “sociologico-theological approach to history.”

This approach, according to Robredillo, uses a “new historicism which means the idea of documents is not limited but uses other fields of science in order to help determine the certainty of the Mass [site],” to which the NHCP chief Rene Escalante said that, “nevertheless, the case of Homonhon shall remain an academic discussion.”

In April 2021, Filipino historian Potenciano R. Malvar launched his book Beyond the Pale: Limasawa Hoax, A Tragedy in Philippine History where he maintains that the first Mass was celebrated in Butuan.

Malvar’s studies on the 16th century Venetian scholar and chronicler Antonio Pigafetta’s manuscripts on the Magellan expedition led him to this conclusion.

Also in 2021, Father Joesilo C. Amalla of Butuan Diocese in Mindanao published a volume entitled An Island They Called Mazaua, where he presented maps and nautical data, manuscripts and testimonies to debunk that Limasawa was the site of the first Mass.

In four public declarations (in 1980, 1995, 2008, and 2020), the NHCP has maintained its official position based on a thorough review of historiography and based on the scientific presentation of primary and original sources in the form of extant maps, original manuscripts, and related documents.

In a resolution dated July 15, 2020, the NHCP, formerly known as the National Historical Institute, concluded that Limasawa island in Southern Leyte was the site of the first Mass in 1521, based on the findings of a panel led by historian and National Artist for Literature Resil Mojares.

The Filipino bishops adopted the official position of the NHCP in their own resolution signed on September 25, 2020, saying that they “concur with … and stand by the proceedings and findings” of the panel.

The moment I began writing about 500 years of Catholicism, my gray matter has prevailed to give more attention to the theological significance than to the historical details

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) resolution was signed by Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan as CBCP acting president and Bishop Julito Cortes as head of the Episcopal Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church.

On March 31, 2019, about 3,000 Catholics attended the pre-pandemic 498th anniversary of the first Mass held on Limasawa Island, headed by the then Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, and concelebrated by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, Palo Archbishop John Du, and Maasin Bishop Precioso Cantillas, SDB.

On March 31, 2021, the present papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles John Brown, said in a message during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Easter Sunday Mass at Limasawa that the Church in the Philippines is invited anew to “go forth” and become a community of authentic missionary disciples.

Archbishop Brown did not make it to the event due to Covid-related travel restrictions.

In his homily that day, Bishop Precioso Cantillas of Maasin, where Limasawa island is, said Maasin Diocese felt privileged to have the site of the first great gift of God, the Eucharist as “we try to lead others into being Eucharistic people.”

The moment I began writing about 500 years of Catholicism, my gray matter has prevailed to give more attention to the theological significance than to the historical details, without, of course, sacrificing the importance of good historiography on the subject.

And why is that first Holy Mass in 1521 theologically significant?

The Andalusian priest Father Pedro de Valderrama’s celebration of the first Holy Mass means that the miracle of transubstantiation of the Holy Eucharist was ever performed and, for the first time, that singular act historically announced the Real Presence of our Eucharistic Lord among the natives.

Lo and behold, whatever Jesus merited and gained at Calvary 2,000 years ago, the grace of Universal Redemption, was made sacramentally available to Filipinos for the first time as the land became sacred and the mustard seed of the Christian faith was planted.

* Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is a Manila-based Catholic scholar, public educator, management adviser and author of “Catholic Social Teachings in CONTEMPORARY Philippine History: 500 YOC (1971-2021), Volume Three” (Claretian, 2022).

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