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. 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—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,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 and Panaon, 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. 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 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' "Limasaua" thus 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.
Read more about this topic: First Mass In The Philippines
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