The Long Last Day

Point 1

-After the death sentence was read to Rizal on 29 December, he refused to sign the notification,
reiterating his innocence and strongly objecting to that part that refer- red to him as a Chinese mestizo.
His arguments were futile. He had to sign the document as required by law. He had only 24 more hours
to live.

• With the guard’s permission, he sent a note to his family :

“ I should like to see some of you before I die, though it may be very painful. Let the bravest come. I have
some important things to say.”

•It was a busy day for him. Visitors came: members of his family, a news- paperman, his defense
counsel, priests, mostly Jesuits who were working for his retraction from Masonry.
In between these visits he managed to write his last letter to his closest friend, Dr Ferdinand
Blumentritt:

“When you receive this letter, 1 shall be dead. I shall be shot tomorrow at seven o’clock, but I am
innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to Idie with a clear conscience. Farewell my best, my
dearest friend, and never think ill of me.”

•With this letter he sent a book which he himself bound when he was at Dapitan. On the same day, he
wrote Paciano:

“My Dear Brother, It has been four and a half years that we have not seen each other or have addressed
one another in writing or orally. I do not believe this is due to lack of affection either on my part or yours,
but because knowing each other so well, we had no need of words to understand each other.
Now that I am going to die, it is to you I dedicate my last words to tell you how much I regret to leave
you alone in life bearing all the weight of the family and of our old parents.
I think of how you have worked to enable me to have a career. I believe that I have tried not to waste my
time. My brother: If the fruit has been bitter, it is not my fault, it is the fault of circumstances. I know that
you have suffered much because of me. I am sorry.
I assure you, brother, that I die. Innocent of this crime of rebellion. If my former writings had been able to
contribute towards it, I should not deny absolutely, but then I believe I expiated my past with my exile.
Tell our father that I remember him, but how? I remember my whole childhood, his tenderness and his
love. Ask him to forgive me for the pain I cause him unwillingly.”

•By later afternoon his mother came, accompanied by Maria, Trinidad, Narcisa, his niece Angelica,
and little Mauricio, his favorite nephew. First to enter his cell was his mother. In tears, mother and
son rushed to each other’s arms but were separated by the guards. He knelt and kissed her hand. At
that moment there were no words. With grief and tenderness their tearful eyes met in love and
understanding. Then Rizal asked his mother to seek the authorities’ permission for the family to bury
his body. After a few minutes Doña Teodora left. She had to follow up a personal plea to the Governor
General for clemency for her son,
One by one the others came. He looked around his cell for something to give each one: to Angelica he
gave a handkerchief, to Narcisa he gave his wicker chair, to Mauricio a belt and a watch with chain. To
Trinidad, who understood English, he gave a little alcohol burner saying aloud that he did not have
anything better to give her. He had had this burner in his cell to heat his cold meals. And as he handed
the burner to her, he whispered in English:
“There is something in it.”
• He had nothing more left to give to Maria but he confided to her that he would marry Josephine.
This gift-giving on his last day was planned. There was no other way of smuggling his last message to
his people, a legacy to the future generations to Inspire them to continue the work he had begun.
When all the members of the family had left, Josephine came for a very brief visit. Not much could be
said between them. He loved her but fate had separated Them.
Relieved that his last poem and message was in safe hands, he lay down to rest. He felt an inner
satisfaction because he knew he had fulfilled his mission. And now without fear and hesitation, he
was finally offering his life for his country.
He reminisced about the past, both distant and immediate. His quietude was interrupted by voices
and footsteps out- side his cell door. The priests who had been conscientiously working for his
retraction from Masonry were back.

Point 2

•We have Father Vicente Balaguer’s word for what transpired in Rizal’s cell from dusk that day to
dawn the next morning, before the prisoner was led out to die at Bagumbayan. In a report submitted
to his superiors and cabled to a Barcelona paper, La Juventud, where it was printed 15 days later,
Father Balaguer said that he and his colleagues howed Rizal the retraction drafted by Archbishop
Nozaleda. It was too long to suit his purpose. He preferred the draft that had been prepared by Father
Pio Pi, the Jesuit superior. He made certain changes, wrote his own retraction, and signed it. He went
to confession and then tried to sleep.

•On the first hour of 30 December 1896, Father Balaguer said Rizal confessed again. At Rizal’s request,
Father Balaguer said Mass and he received Holy Communion. After the mass, Father Jose Vilaclara,
one of his favorite Ateneo teachers who had been with him a good part of the previous day,
suggested the reading of the acts of faith, hope, and charity. He then turned to Thomas á Kempis’
Imitation of Christ.

•While waiting for Josephine he wrote a final letter to his family:

“I ask for your forgiveness, for the pain I cause you, but someday I shall have to die, and it is better that
I die now in the plenitude of my con- science.
Dear parents and brothers: Give thanks to God that I may preserve my tranquility before my death. I die
re- signed, hoping that with my death you will be left in peace. Ah! It is better to die than to live
suffering. Console your- selves.
“I enjoin you to forgive one another the little vexations of life and try to live in peace and harmony. Treat
our old parents as you would like to be treated by your children later. Love them very much in my
memory.
Bury me in the ground. Place a stone or a cross over it. My name, the date of my birth and of my death.
Nothing more. If later you wish to fence in my grave, you can do so. But no anniversary celebrations. I
prefer Paang Bundok.”

•The report states that Josephine arrived at five o’clock. There were no lengthy formalities to the
wedding cere mony. The overcautious commanding officer stood between the couple while a guard
watched Rizal closely during the brief ceremony. Father Balaguer asked the couple to clasp each
other’s hand. The commanding officer refused to allow this act because of the regulation not to let
any visitor touch the prisoner. But the priest insisted that this was an important part of the ceremony.
Over the clasped hands of Rizal and Josephine, Father Balaguer intoned the sacramental prayers and
then pronounced them man and wife.

•After the ceremony, Rizal gave Josephine his book, Imitation of Christ, with the dedication: “To my
dear and unhappy wife, 30 December 1896.”

•They stood both quiet for a while, conscious of the approaching hour of the execution. They had so
much to say to each other but there was no time. Rizal finally managed to ask her:
"What is to become of you?"

•She could not tell him in the presence of the guard that she would join the revolutionists, so she
answered that she would give lessons in EngliwrotTime was up and she had to leave. She bade him a
tearful goodbye. Lovingly Rizal looked at her for the last time:
"Farewell, sweet foreigner, my crony, my delight!"

•With Josephine gone, he had a few more minutes to write his parents. To his father he wrote:
"Forgive me the sorrow with which I repay the anxieties and toil you underwent to give me an education.
I did not want this nor did I expect it. Farewell, father, farewell."
•At 6 in the morning of December 30, 1896
Jose Rizal could not continue his note. For a man who could easily write down his thoughts, he could
not express his deepest sympathy to his beloved grieving mother.

•The Execution. Dressed in black from head to foot, Rizal walked out of his cell, his arms loosely
bound, elbow to elbow. He was flanked by Taviel de Andrade and Fathers Vilaclara and Estanislao
March. A bugler and a drummer led the detachment of Filipino soldiers that escorted him to the
Luneta de Bagumbayan. The firing squad was composed of who were members of the regular a
Filipinos Hiis last glimpse of the Ateneo dened him somewhat. "I spent seven years there," he
remarked to his escorts at the execution square he was blessed and given the crucifix to kiss. The
army doctor, Dr Felipe Ruiz Castillo, felt his pulse and found it normal and steady.just before the order
to fire was given, Rizal requested that he be shot in the front for he was not a traitor. But the explicit
orders were otherwise. His second request, that his head be spared, was granted.

•The orders rang out and a volley of shots were fired. As the bullets pierced him, Rizal tried to turn
right about and fell He had proudly offered his life as a supreme sacrifice for his country that the
wisdom of his example would serve as an inspiration to his fellowmen.