The so-called “first mass” was held at an island named “Mazaua” (Italian/French spelling for a vernacular word “masawa” which is Butuanon for brilliant light). Five eyewitnesses wrote on the Mazaua incident, Antonio Pigafetta, Gines de Mafra (who revisted the island in 1543), Francisco Albo, The Genoese Pilot, and Martin de Ayamonte. The accounts of Pigafetta, Albo, and the Genoese Pilot are in Stanley’s book. De Mafra’s is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:First_mass_in_the_Philippines#The_account_of_Gin.C3.A9s_de_Mafra. Ayamonte’s is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mart%C3%ADn_de_Ayamonte.

The “Limasaua” story was written by Fr. Francisco Combes, S.J., only in 1667, almost one and a half century after the Mazaua incident. Combes had not read Pigafetta, Albo, The Genoese Pilot, Gines de Mafra, and Ayamonte.

You can read the original Spanish text of this 3-paragraph story by Fr. Francisco Combes, S.J., at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=philamer;cc=philamer;q1=Limasaua;rgn=full%20text;idno=ahz9273.0001.001;didno=ahz9273.0001.001;view=image;seq=134. The English translation of the 3 paragraphs by Fr. Miguel A. Bernad, S.J., may be read at http://books.google.com/books?id=NbG7kHtBma8C&pg=PA1&dq=First+mass+in+Limasawa&ei=6w27SZi7IoLKlQS8neDVAg#PPA4,M1.

After reading Bernad’s translation, let me ask you the following:

1. Is there any reference to an Easter mass or whatever mass in the Limasaua story?

2. Is Limasaua the island where Magellan and his fleet anchored from March 28 to April 4, 1521?

If you want to know the factual story of the first mass, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_mass_in_the_Philippines.

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