<P> 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 .". Yet this has no reference at all to a Catholic mass being held on March 31, 1521 . </P> <P> Some Filipino historians have long contested the idea that Limasawa was the site of the first Catholic mass in the country . Historian Sonia Zaide identified Masao (also Mazaua) in Butuan as the location of the first Christian mass . The basis of Zaide's claim is the diary of Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of Magellan's voyage . 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 . The Philippine Congress referred the matter to the National Historical Institute for it to study the issue and recommend a historical finding . Then NHI chair Dr. Samuel K. Tan reaffirmed Limasawa as the site of the first mass . </P> <P> Odoric of Pordenone, an Italian and Franciscan friar and missiona ry explorer, is heartily believed by many Pangasinenses to have celebrated the first mass in Pangasinan in around 1324 that would have predated the mass held in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, which is generally regarded as the first mass in the Philippines . A marker in front of Bolinao Church states that the first Mass on Philippine soil was celebrated in Bolinao Bay in 1324 by a Franciscan missionary, Blessed Odorico . However, the National Historical Institute led by its chair Ambeth Ocampo recognized the historical records of Limasawa in Southern Leyte as the venue of the first Mass, held on March 31, 1521 . </P>

Where was the first mass held in the philippines