In 1998, the National Historical Institute (NHI) officially settled the long-standing controversy over the site of the recorded First Mass in the Philippines on 31 March 1521 between Limasawa, Southern Leyte, and Masao, Butuan City in Mindanao. The NHI decided in favor of Limasawa. For years...
It has been disputed both whether the 1521 Mass was indeed the first Catholic Mass to be held in the Philippines and whether it indeed occur on the island on Limasawa; some assert that the first Mass was celebrated in Butuan. Nevertheless, the site where the First Mass allegedly took place...