José Rizal

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda[7] (Spanish: [xoˈse riˈsal, -ˈθal], Tagalog:
[hoˈse ɾiˈsal]; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and
polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is
considered a national hero (pambansang bayani) of the Philippines.[8][9] An
ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino
Propaganda Movement, which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.

He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the
Philippine Revolution broke out; it was inspired by his writings. Though he was not actively
involved in its planning or conduct, he ultimately approved of its goals which eventually
resulted in Philippine independence.

Rizal is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines and has been
recommended to be so honored by an officially empaneled National Heroes Committee.
However, no law, executive order or proclamation has been enacted or issued officially
proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as a national hero.[9] He wrote the novels Noli Me
Tángere (1887) and El filibusterismo (1891), which together are taken as a national epic, in
addition to numerous poems and essays.[10][11]
Early life José Rizal

José Rizal's baptismal register

Rizal c. 1890s

Born José
Protasio
Rizal
Francisco Rizal Mercado Mercado y
(1818–1898)

Alonso
Realonda[1]
June 19,
1861[2]
Calamba,
Teodora Alonso Realonda
(1827–1911) Laguna,
Rizal's parents
Captaincy
General of
the
Philippines,
José Rizal in ₱2 note Spanish
José Rizal was born on June 19, 1861 to Empire[2]
Francisco Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and
Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quintos in the
town of Calamba in Laguna province. He Died December
had nine sisters and one brother. His
parents were leaseholders of a hacienda 30, 1896
and an accompanying rice farm held by the
Dominicans. Both their families had (aged 35)[3]
adopted the additional surnames of Rizal
and Realonda in 1849 after Governor Bagumbayan,
General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa decreed
the adoption of Spanish surnames among Manila,
the Filipinos for census purposes (though
they already had Spanish names). Captaincy
Like many families in the Philippines, the
General of
Rizals were of mestizo origin. José's
patrilineal lineage could be traced to Fujian
in China through his father's ancestor Lam-
the
co, a Hokkien Chinese merchant who
immigrated to the Philippines in the late 17th
Philippines,
century.[12][13][note 1][14] Lam-co traveled to
Manila from Xiamen, China, possibly to
avoid the famine or plague in his home
district, and more probably to escape the Spanish
Empire[3]
Manchu invasion during the transition from
Ming to Qing. He decided to stay in the
islands as a farmer. In 1697, to escape the
bitter anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in
Cause of Execution
the Philippines, he converted to
Catholicism, changed his name to Domingo
death by firing
Mercado and married the daughter of
Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co.
squad
On his mother's side, Rizal's ancestry
included Chinese and Tagalog. His mother's
Resting Rizal
lineage can be traced to the affluent
Florentina family of Chinese mestizo
families originating in Baliuag, Bulacan.[15]
place Monument,
He also had Spanish ancestry. Regina
Ochoa, a grandmother of his mother,
Manila
Teodora, had mixed Spanish, Chinese, and
Tagalog blood. His maternal grandfather Monuments Daet,
was a half-Spanish engineer named
Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.[16] José Rizal's Camari
maternal great-great-grandfather, Eugenio
Ursua, was of Japanese ancestry.[17][18] Norte
From an early age, José showed a
precocious intellect. He learned the
Manila
alphabet from his mother at 3, and could
read and write at age 5.[13] Upon enrolling at
Calamb
the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he
dropped the last three names that made up
Laguna
his full name, on the advice of his brother,
Paciano and the Mercado family, thus Other names Pepe,
rendering his name as "José Protasio Rizal".
Of this, he later wrote: "My family never (nickn
paid much attention [to our second
surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus
giving me the appearance of an illegitimate
child!"[19] This was to enable him to travel Alma mater Ateneo
freely and disassociate him from his
brother, who had gained notoriety with Municip
earlier links to Filipino priests Mariano
Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora de Man
(popularly known as Gomburza), who had
been accused and executed for treason. (BA)
José, as "Rizal", soon distinguished himself
in poetry writing contests, impressing his
Univers
professors with his facility with Castilian
and other foreign languages, and later, in
of Sant
writing essays that were critical of the
Spanish historical accounts of the pre-
Tomas
colonial Philippine societies. By 1891, the
year he finished his second novel El
Univers
filibusterismo, his second surname had
become so well known that, as he writes to
Central
another friend, "All my family now carry the
name Rizal instead of Mercado because the
Madrid
name Rizal means persecution! Good! I too
want to join them and be worthy of this
(MD)
family name..."[19]

Organization(s) La
Soli
La L
Filip

Notable work Noli M

Tánge
 (1887
Education El
filibus
(1891)

Movement Propaga
Moveme

Spouse Josephine B
[6]

Rizal, 11 years old, a

student at the Ateneo
Municipal de Manila
Parents Francisco
Rizal first studied under Justiniano Aquino Rizal
Cruz in Biñan, Laguna, before he was sent
to Manila.[20] He took the entrance Mercado
examination to Colegio de San Juan de
Letran, as his father requested, but he (father)
enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila.
He graduated as one of the nine students in Teodora
his class declared sobresaliente or
outstanding. He continued his education at Alonso
the Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a
land surveyor and assessor's degree and Realonda
simultaneously at the University of Santo
Tomas, where he studied a preparatory (mother)
course in law and finished with a mark of
excelente, or excellent. He finished the
course of Philosophy as a pre-law.[21] Relatives Saturnina
Upon learning that his mother was going
blind, he decided to switch to medicine at
Hidalgo
the medical school of Santo Tomas,
specializing later in ophthalmology. He
(sister)
received his four-year practical training in
medicine at Ospital de San Juan de Dios in
Paciano
Intramuros. In his last year at medical
school, he received a mark of sobresaliente
Rizal
in courses of Patologia Medica (Medical
Pathology), Patología Quirúrgica (Surgical
(brother)
Pathology) and Obstretics.
Trinidad
Although known as a bright student, Rizal
had some difficulty in some science Rizal
subjects in medical school such as Física
(Physics) and Patología General (General (sister)
Pathology).[22]

Signature

Rizal as a student at the

University of Santo
Tomas

Without his parents' knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano,
he traveled alone to Madrid in May 1882 and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de
Madrid. There he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. He also attended medical
lectures at the University of Paris and the University of Heidelberg. In Berlin, he was
inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological
Society under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom,
he delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the Anthropological Society on the
orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He wrote a poem to the city, "A las
flores del Heidelberg", which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his
native land and the unification of common values between East and West.

At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal completed his eye specialization in 1887 under the
renowned professor, Otto Becker. There he used the newly invented ophthalmoscope
(invented by Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his mother's eye. From
Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: "I spend half of the day in the study of German and the
other half, in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbraueriei, or beerhall, to
speak German with my student friends." He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house then
moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Reverend Karl Ullmer and stayed with them in
Wilhelmsfeld. There he wrote the last few chapters of Noli Me Tángere, his first novel,
published in Spanish later that year.

Rizal was a polymath, skilled in both science and the arts. He painted, sketched, and made
sculptures and woodcarving. He was a prolific poet, essayist, and novelist whose most
famous works were his two novels, Noli Me Tángere (1887) and its sequel, El filibusterismo
(1891).[note 2] These social commentaries during the Spanish colonial period of the country
formed the nucleus of literature that inspired peaceful reformists and armed revolutionaries
alike.

Rizal was also a polyglot, conversant in twenty-two languages.[note 3][note 4][23][24]

Rizal's numerous skills and abilities was described by his German friend, Adolf Bernhard
Meyer, as "stupendous."[note 5] Documented studies show Rizal to be a polymath with the
ability to master various skills and subjects.[23][25][26] He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor,
painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides poetry and creative
writing, he dabbled, with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography,
economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol
shooting. Skilled in social settings, he became a Freemason, joining Acacia Lodge No. 9
during his time in Spain; he became a Master Mason in 1884.[27]
Personal life, relationships
and ventures

Rednaxela Terrace, where Rizal

lived during his self-imposed exile
in Hong Kong (photo taken in 2011)

José Rizal's life is one of the most documented of 19th-century Filipinos due to the vast and
extensive records written by and about him.[28] Almost everything in his short life is
recorded somewhere. He was a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, and much of this
material has survived. His biographers have faced challenges in translating his writings
because of Rizal's habit of switching from one language to another.

Biographers drew largely from his travel diaries with his comments by a young Asian
encountering the West for the first time (other than in Spanish manifestations in the
Philippines). These diaries included Rizal's later trips, home and back again to Europe
through Japan and the United States,[29] and, finally, through his self-imposed exile in Hong
Kong.

Shortly after he graduated from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila
University), Rizal (who was then 16 years old) and a friend, Mariano Katigbak, visited Rizal's
maternal grandmother in Tondo, Manila. Mariano brought along his sister, Segunda
Katigbak, a 14-year-old Batangueña from Lipa, Batangas.

It was the first time Rizal had met her, whom he described as

"rather short, with eyes that were eloquent and ardent at times and
languid at others, rosy-cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative
smile that revealed very beautiful teeth, and the air of a sylph; her
entire self diffused a mysterious charm."

His grandmother's guests were mostly college students and they knew that Rizal had skills
in painting. They suggested that Rizal should make a portrait of Segunda. He complied
reluctantly and made a pencil sketch of her. Rizal referred to her as his first love in his
memoir Memorias de un Estudiante de Manila, but Katigbak was already engaged to
Manuel Luz.[30]

Business card showing José Rizal

is an ophthalmologist in Hong
Kong

From December 1891 to June 1892, Rizal lived with his family in Number 2 of Rednaxela
Terrace, Mid-levels, Hong Kong Island. Rizal used 5 D'Aguilar Street, Central district, Hong
Kong Island, as his ophthalmology clinic from 2 pm to 6 pm. In this period of his life, he
wrote about nine women who have been identified: Gertrude Beckett of Chalcot Crescent,
Primrose Hill, Camden, London; wealthy and high-minded Nelly Boustead of an English-
Iberian merchant family; Seiko Usui (affectionately called O-Sei-san), last descendant of a
noble Japanese family; his earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak; Leonor Valenzuela,
and an eight-year romantic relationship with Leonor Rivera, a distant cousin (she is thought
to have inspired his character of María Clara in Noli Me Tángere).
Affair
In one account detailing Rizal's 1887 visit to Prague, Maximo Viola wrote that Rizal had
succumbed to a 'lady of the camellias'. Viola, a friend of Rizal's and an early financier of
Noli Me Tángere, was alluding to Dumas's 1848 novel, La dame aux camelias, about a man
who fell in love with a courtesan. While noting Rizal's affair, Viola provided no details about
its duration or nature.[31][32][note 6]

Association with Leonor Rivera

A crayon portrait of Leonor Rivera

by José Rizal

Leonor Rivera is thought to have inspired the character of María Clara in Noli Me Tángere
and El Filibusterismo.[33] Rivera and Rizal first met in Manila when Rivera was 14 years old
and Rizal was 16. When Rizal left for Europe on May 3, 1882, Rivera was 16 years old. Their
correspondence began after Rizal left a poem for her.[34]

Their correspondence helped Rizal stay focused on his studies in Europe. They employed
codes in their letters because Rivera's mother did not favor Rizal. In a letter from Mariano
Katigbak dated June 27, 1884, she referred to Rivera as Rizal's "betrothed". Katigbak
described Rivera as having been greatly affected by Rizal's departure, and frequently sick
because of insomnia.

Before Rizal returned to the Philippines on August 5, 1887, Rivera and her family had moved
back to Dagupan, Pangasinan. Rizal's father forbade the young man to see Rivera in order
to avoid putting her family in danger. Rizal was already labeled by the criollo elite as a
filibustero or subversive[34] because of his novel Noli Me Tángere. Rizal wanted to marry
Rivera while he was still in the Philippines because she had been so faithful to him. Rizal
asked permission from his father one more time before his second departure from the
Philippines, but he never met her again.

In 1888, Rizal stopped receiving letters from Rivera for a year, although he continued to
write to her. Rivera's mother favored an Englishman named Henry Kipping, a railway
engineer who fell in love with Rivera.[34][35] The news of Leonor Rivera's marriage to
Kipping devastated Rizal.

His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on pieces
of paper. He had visited Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, and impressed the man's
daughter, Consuelo, who wrote about Rizal. In her diary, she said Rizal had regaled them
with his wit, social graces, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on
Antonio de Morga's writings, he became a regular guest in the home of Reinhold Rost of the
British Museum, who referred to him as "a gem of a man."[28][note 7] The family of Karl
Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts in Germany saved even napkins that
Rizal had made sketches and notes on. They were ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family
to form a treasure trove of memorabilia.
Relationship with Josephine
Bracken

Josephine Bracken was

Rizal's common-law wife
whom he reportedly
married shortly before his
execution.

In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman from Hong Kong. She
had accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his eyes checked by
Rizal.[36] After frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love. They applied to marry but,
because of Rizal's reputation from his writings and political stance, the local priest Father
Obach would hold the ceremony only if Rizal could get permission from the Bishop of
Cebu. As Rizal refused to return to practicing Catholicism, the bishop refused permission
for an ecclesiastical marriage.[6]

After accompanying her father to Manila on her return to Hong Kong, and before heading
back to Dapitan to live with Rizal, Josephine introduced herself to members of Rizal's
family in Manila. His mother suggested a civil marriage, which she believed to be a lesser
sacrament but less sinful to Rizal's conscience than making any sort of political retraction in
order to gain permission from the Bishop.[37] Rizal and Josephine lived as husband and wife
in a common-law marriage in Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a son, but he lived only a
few hours. Rizal named him after his father Francisco.[38]
In Brussels and Spain (1890–
1892)
In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels as he was preparing for the publication of his
annotations of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609). He lived in the
boarding house of the sisters, Catherina and Suzanna Jacoby, who had a niece Suzanna
("Thil"), age 16. Historian Gregorio F. Zaide says that Rizal had "his romance with Suzanne
Jacoby, 45, the petite niece of his landladies." Belgian Pros Slachmuylders, however,
believed that Rizal had a romance with the 17-year-old niece, Suzanna Thil, as his other
liaisons were all with young women.[39] He found records clarifying their names and ages.

Rizal's Brussels stay was short-lived; he moved to Madrid, giving the young Suzanna a box
of chocolates. She wrote to him in French: "After your departure, I did not take the
chocolate. The box is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don't delay too long writing
us because I wear out the soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see if there is a
letter from you. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in that in
Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back…"[39] In 2007, Slachmuylders'
group arranged for an historical marker honoring Rizal to be placed at the house.[39]

He published Dimanche des Rameaux (Palm Sunday), a socio-political essay, in Berlin on

November 30, 1886. He discussed the significance of Palm Sunday in socio-political terms:

"This entry [of Jesus into Jerusalem] decided the fate of the jealous
priests, the Pharisees, of all those who believed themselves the only
ones who had the right to speak in the name of God, of those who
would not admit the truths said by others because they have not been
said by them. That triumph, those hosannas, all those flowers, those
olive branches, were not for Jesus alone; they were the songs of the
victory of the new law, they were the canticles celebrating the
 dignification of man, the liberty of man, the first mortal blow directed
against despotism and slavery".[40]

Shortly after its publication, Rizal was summoned by the German police, who suspected
him of being a French spy.[41]

The content of Rizal's writings changed considerably in his two most famous novels, Noli
Me Tángere, published in Berlin in 1887, and El Filibusterismo, published in Ghent in 1891.
For the latter, he used funds borrowed from his friends. These writings angered both the
Spanish colonial elite and many educated Filipinos due to their symbolism. They are critical
of Spanish friars and the power of the Church. Rizal's friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, a
professor and historian born in Austria-Hungary, wrote that the novel's characters were
drawn from life and that every episode could be repeated on any day in the Philippines.[42]

Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna in the former Austro-
Hungarian Empire and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him
from writing the preface of El filibusterismo, after he had translated Noli Me Tángere into
German. As Blumentritt had warned, these books resulted in Rizal's being prosecuted as the
inciter of revolution. He was eventually tried by the military, convicted, and executed. His
books were thought to contribute to the Philippine Revolution of 1896, but other forces had
also been building for it.

Leaders of the reform movement

in Spain. Left to right: Rizal, del
Pilar, and Ponce (c. 1890).
As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, Rizal contributed essays,
allegories, poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona (in
this case Rizal used pen names, "Dimasalang", "Laong Laan" and "May Pagasa"). The core
of his writings centers on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom;
specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He shared the same sentiments with members of
the movement: Rizal wrote that the people of the Philippines were battling "a double-faced
Goliath"—corrupt friars and bad government. His commentaries reiterate the following
agenda:[note 8]

That the Philippines be made a

province of Spain (The Philippines
was a province of New Spain – now
Mexico, administered from Mexico
City from 1565 to 1821. From 1821 to
1898, it was administered directly
from Spain.)
Representation in the Cortes
Filipino priests instead of Spanish
friars – Augustinians, Dominicans,
and Franciscans – in parishes and
remote sitios
 Freedom of assembly and speech
Equal rights before the law (for both
Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs)
The colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reforms. Such Spanish
intellectuals as Morayta, Unamuno, Pi y Margall, and others did endorse them.

In 1890, a rivalry developed between Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar for the leadership of La
Solidaridad and the reform movement in Europe.[43] The majority of the expatriates
supported the leadership of del Pilar.

Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by writing an

insulting article in La Epoca, a newspaper in Madrid. He implied that Rizal's family and
friends had been evicted from their lands in Calamba for not having paid their due rents.
The incident (when Rizal was ten) stemmed from an accusation that Rizal's mother,
Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin, but she said she was trying to help. With the
approval of the Church prelates, and without a hearing, she was ordered to prison in Santa
Cruz in 1871. She was forced to walk the ten miles (16 km) from Calamba. She was released
after two-and-a-half years of appeals to the highest court.[26] In 1887, Rizal wrote a petition
on behalf of the tenants of Calamba, and later that year led them to speak out against the
friars' attempts to raise rent. They initiated litigation that resulted in the Dominicans' evicting
them and the Rizal family from their homes. General Valeriano Weyler had the tenant
buildings on the farm torn down.

Upon reading the article, Rizal sent a representative to challenge Retana to a duel. Retana
published a public apology and later became one of Rizal's biggest admirers. He wrote the
most important biography of Rizal, Vida y Escritos del José Rizal.[44][note 9]
Return to the Philippines
(1892–1896)

Exile in Dapitan

Bust of Padre
Guerrico in
clay, by Rizal

Rizal's pencil sketch of

Blumentritt

Upon his return to Manila in 1892, he formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. The
league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, but was disbanded
by the governor. At that time, he had already been declared an enemy of the state by the
Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novel.

Rizal was implicated in the activities of the nascent rebellion and in July 1892, was deported
to Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga, a peninsula of Mindanao.[45] There he built a
school, a hospital and a water supply system, and taught and engaged in farming and
horticulture.[46]

The boys' school, which taught in Spanish, and included English as a foreign language
(considered a prescient if unusual option then) was conceived by Rizal and antedated
Gordonstoun with its aims of inculcating resourcefulness and self-sufficiency in young
men.[47] They would later enjoy successful lives as farmers and honest government
officials.[48][49][50] One, a Muslim, became a datu, and another, José Aseniero, who was
with Rizal throughout the life of the school, became Governor of Zamboanga.[51][52]

In Dapitan, the Jesuits mounted a great effort to secure his return to the fold led by Fray
Francisco de Paula Sánchez, his former professor, who failed in his mission. The task was
resumed by Fray Pastells, a prominent member of the Order. In a letter to Pastells, Rizal
sails close to the deism familiar to us today.[53][54][55]

We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I

doubt His when I am convinced of mine. Who so recognizes the effect
recognizes the cause. To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience,
and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is
life for? Now then, my faith in God, if the result of a ratiocination may
be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I
neither believe nor disbelieve the qualities which many attribute to
Him; before theologians' and philosophers' definitions and
lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find myself
smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the
supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I
cannot but reply: 'It could be'; but the God that I foreknow is far more
grand, far more good: Plus Supra!...I believe in (revelation); but not in
revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to
possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and
scrutinizing them, one cannot avoid discerning the human 'fingernail'
 and the stamp of the time in which they were written... No, let us not
make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant
planet lost in infinite space. However, brilliant and sublime our
intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which
shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no
idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in
revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every
side, in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear,
distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that
revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we
are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the goodness
of God, His love, His providence, His eternity, His glory, His wisdom?
'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his
handiwork.[56]

Statue of Pio Valenzuela's June

15, 1896 visit to José Rizal in
Dapitan

His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European friends
and fellow-scientists who wrote a stream of letters which arrived in Dutch, French, German
and English and which baffled the censors, delaying their transmittal. Those four years of
his exile coincided with the development of the Philippine Revolution from inception and to
its final breakout, which, from the viewpoint of the court which was to try him, suggested
his complicity in it.[28] He condemned the uprising, although all the members of the
Katipunan had made him their honorary president and had used his name as a cry for war,
unity, and liberty.[57]

He is known to making the resolution of bearing personal sacrifice instead of the incoming
revolution, believing that a peaceful stand is the best way to avoid further suffering in the
country and loss of Filipino lives. In Rizal's own words, "I consider myself happy for being
able to suffer a little for a cause which I believe to be sacred [...]. I believe further that in any
undertaking, the more one suffers for it, the surer its success. If this be fanaticism may God
pardon me, but my poor judgment does not see it as such."[58]

In Dapitan, Rizal wrote "Haec Est Sibylla Cumana", a parlor-game for his students, with
questions and answers for which a wooden top was used. In 2004, Jean Paul Verstraeten
traced this book and the wooden top, as well as Rizal's personal watch, spoon and salter.

Arrest and trial

The statue of Rizal's trial at the

Rizal Shrine in Fort Santiago

By 1896, the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan, a militant secret society, had become a
full-blown revolution, proving to be a nationwide uprising.[59] Rizal had earlier volunteered
his services as a doctor in Cuba and was given leave by Governor-General Ramón Blanco
to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever. Rizal and Josephine left Dapitan on
August 1, 1896, with letter of recommendation from Blanco.

Rizal was arrested en route to Cuba via Spain and was imprisoned in Barcelona on October
6, 1896. He was sent back the same day to Manila to stand trial as he was implicated in the
revolution through his association with members of the Katipunan. During the entire
passage, he was unchained, no Spaniard laid a hand on him, and had many opportunities to
escape but refused to do so.

While imprisoned in Fort Santiago, he issued a manifesto disavowing the current revolution
in its present state and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a
national identity were prerequisites to freedom.

Rizal was tried before a court-martial for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy, and was
convicted on all three charges and sentenced to death. Blanco, who was sympathetic to
Rizal, had been forced out of office. The friars, led by then-Archbishop of Manila
Bernardino Nozaleda had 'intercalated' Camilo de Polavieja in his stead as the new Spanish
Governor-General of the Philippines after pressuring Queen-Regent Maria Cristina of
Spain, thus sealing Rizal's fate.

Execution

A photographic record of Rizal's execution in what was

then Bagumbayan

Moments before his execution on December 30, 1896, by a squad of Filipino soldiers of the
Spanish Army, a backup force of regular Spanish Army troops stood ready to shoot the
executioners should they fail to obey orders.[60] The Spanish Army Surgeon General
requested to take his pulse: it was normal. Aware of this, the sergeant commanding the
backup force hushed his men to silence when they began raising "vivas" with the highly
partisan crowd of Peninsular and Mestizo Spaniards. His last words were those of Jesus
Christ: "consummatum est" – "it is finished."[23][61][note 10]

A day before, Rizal's mother pleaded with the authorities to have Rizal's body placed under
her family's custody as per Rizal's wish; this was unheeded but was later granted by Manuel
Luengo, the civil governor of Manila. Immediately following the execution, Rizal was
secretly buried in Pacò Cemetery (now Paco Park) in Manila with no identification on his
grave, intentionally mismarked to mislead and discourage martyrdom.
His undated poem Mi último adiós, believed to have been written a few days before his
execution, was hidden in an alcohol stove, which was later handed to his family with his few
remaining possessions, including the final letters and his last bequests.[62]: 91 During their
visit, Rizal reminded his sisters in English, "There is something inside it", referring to the
alcohol stove given by the Pardo de Taveras which was to be returned after his execution,
thereby emphasizing the importance of the poem. This instruction was followed by another,
"Look in my shoes", in which another item was secreted.

Rizal's execution, as well as those of other political dissidents (mostly anarchist) in

Barcelona was ultimately invoked by Michele Angiolillo, an Italian anarchist, when he
assassinated Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Canovas del Castillo.[63]

Exhumation and re-burial

An undated photo of Rizal's

original grave in Paco Park. Note
the date written in Spanish.
 The grave in Paco Park after its
renovation. Note the date
repainted in English and the bust
added with some lampposts.

Rizal's sister Narcisa toured all possible gravesites only for her efforts to end in vain. On one
day, she visited Paco Cemetery and discovered guards posted at its gate, later finding
Luengo, accompanied by two army officers, standing around a freshly-dug grave covered
with earth, which she assumed to be that of her brother's, on the reason that there had never
been any ground burials at the site. After realizing that Rizal was buried in the spot, she
made a gift to the caretaker and requested him to place a marble slab inscribed with "RPJ",
Rizal's initials in reverse.

In August 1898, a few days after the Americans took Manila, Narcisa secured the consent of
the American authorities to retrieve Rizal's remains. During the exhumation, it was then
revealed that Rizal was not buried in a coffin but was wrapped in cloth before being
dumped in the grave; his burial was not on sanctified ground granted to the 'confessed'
faithful. The identity of the remains further confirmed by both the black suit and the shoes,
both worn by Rizal on his execution, but whatever was in his shoes had disintegrated.

Following the exhumation, the remains were brought to the Rizal household in Binondo,
where they were washed and cleaned before being placed in an ivory urn made by
Romualdo Teodoro de los Reyes de Jesus. The urn remained in the household until
December 28, 1912.

On December 29, the urn was transferred from Binondo to the Marble Hall of the
Ayuntamiento de Manila, the municipal building, in Intramuros where it remained on public
display from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., guarded by the Caballeros de Rizal. The public was
given the chance to see the urn. The next day, in a solemn procession, the urn began its last
journey from the Ayuntamiento to its last resting place in a spot in Bagumbayan (now
renamed as Luneta), where the Rizal Monument would be built.[26] Witnessed by his family,
Rizal was finally buried in fitting rites. In a simultaneous ceremony, the corner stone for the
Rizal monument was placed and the Rizal Monument Commission was created, headed by
Tomas G. Del Rosario.

A year later, on December 30, 1913, the monument, designed and made by Swiss sculptor
Richard Kissling, was inaugurated.

Works and writings

Rizal wrote mostly in Spanish, the lingua franca of the Spanish East Indies, though some of
his letters (for example Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos) were written in Tagalog. His
works have since been translated into a number of languages including Tagalog and
English.

Novels and essays

"El amor patrio", 1882 essay[64]

"Toast to Juan Luna and Felix
Hidalgo", 1884 speech given at
Restaurante Ingles, Madrid
Noli Me Tángere, 1887 novel (literally
Latin for 'touch me not', from John
20:17)[65]
Alin Mang Lahi ("Whate'er the Race"),
a Kundiman attributed to Dr. José
Rizal[66]
"Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga-Malolos"
(To the Young Women of Malolos),
1889 letter[67]
Annotations to Antonio de Morga's
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, 1889[68]
"Filipinas dentro de cien años" (The
Philippines a Century Hence), 1889–
90 essay
"Sobre la indolencia de los filipinos"
(The Indolence of Filipinos), 1890
essay[69]
"Como se gobiernan las Filipinas"
(Governing the Philippine islands),
1890 essay
El filibusterismo, 1891 novel; sequel to
Noli Me Tángere[70]
Una visita del Señor a Filipinas, also
known as Friars and Filipinos, 14-
page unfinished novel written in
1889[71]
Memorias de un Gallo, two-page
unfinished satire[71]
Makamisa, unfinished Tagalog-
language novel written in 1892[72]
 The Triumph of
Science over
Death, by Rizal

Poetry

"Felicitación" (1874/75)
"El embarque"[73] (The Embarkation,
1875)
"Por la educación recibe lustre la
patria" (1876)
"Un recuerdo á mi pueblo" (1876)
"Al niño Jesús" (c. 1876)
"A la juventud filipina" (To the
Philippine Youth, 1879)
"¡Me piden versos!" (1882)
"Canto de María Clara" (from Noli Me
Tángere, 1887)
"Himno al trabajo" (Dalit sa Paggawa,
1888)[74]
"Kundiman" (disputed, 1889) - also
attributed to Pedro Paterno
"A mi musa" (To My Muse, 1890)
"El canto del viajero" (1892–96)
"Mi retiro" (1895)
"Mi último adiós" (1896)
 "Mi primera inspiracion" (disputed) -
also attributed to Antonio Lopez,
Rizal's nephew

Plays

El Consejo de los Dioses (The Council

of Gods)[75]
Junto al Pasig (Along the Pasig)[76]: 381
San Euistaquio, Mártyr (Saint
Eustache, the Martyr)[77]

Other works
Rizal also tried his hand at painting and sculpture. His most famous sculptural work was The
Triumph of Science over Death, a clay sculpture of a naked young woman with overflowing
hair, standing on a skull while bearing a torch held high. The woman symbolized the
ignorance of humankind during the Dark Ages, while the torch she bore symbolized the
enlightenment science brings over the whole world. He sent the sculpture as a gift to his
dear friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, together with another one named The Triumph of Death
over Life.
The woman is shown trampling the skull, a symbol of death, to signify the victory the
humankind achieved by conquering the bane of death through their scientific
advancements. The original sculpture is now displayed at the Rizal Shrine at Fort Santiago in
Intramuros, Manila. It has replicas inside the University of the Philippines Manila campus
and in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

Rizal is also noted to be a carver and sculptor who made works from clay, plaster-of-Paris,
and baticuling wood, the last being his preferred medium. While in exile in Dapitan, he
served as a mentor to three Paete natives including José Caancan, who in turn taught three
generations of carvers back in his hometown.[78]

Rizal is known to have made 56 sculptural works, but only 18 of these are known to be still
existing as of 2021.[78]

Reactions after death

An engraving of the execution of Filipino insurgents

at Bagumbayan (now Luneta)
 Historical marker of José Rizal's
execution site

Retraction controversy
Several historians report that Rizal retracted his anti-Catholic ideas through a document
which stated: "I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings, publications and
conduct have been contrary to my character as a son of the Catholic Church."[note 11]
However, there are doubts of its authenticity given that there is no certificate of Rizal's
Catholic marriage to Josephine Bracken.[79] Also there is an allegation that the retraction
document was a forgery.[80]

After analyzing six major documents of Rizal, Ricardo Pascual concluded that the retraction
document, said to have been discovered in 1935, was not in Rizal's handwriting. Senator
Rafael Palma, a former President of the University of the Philippines and a prominent
Mason, argued that a retraction is not in keeping with Rizal's character and mature
beliefs.[81] He called the retraction story a "pious fraud."[82] Others who deny the retraction
are Frank Laubach,[23] a Protestant minister; Austin Coates,[35] a British writer; and Ricardo
Manapat, director of the National Archives.[83]

Those who affirm the authenticity of Rizal's retraction are prominent Philippine historians
such as Nick Joaquin,[note 12] Nicolas Zafra of UP[84] León María Guerrero III,[note 13] Gregorio
Zaide,[86] Guillermo Gómez Rivera, Ambeth Ocampo,[83] John N. Schumacher,[87] Antonio
M. Molina,[88] Paul Dumol[89] and Austin Craig.[26] They take the retraction document as
authentic, having been judged as such by a foremost expert on the writings of Rizal,
Teodoro Kalaw (a 33rd degree Mason) and "handwriting experts...known and recognized in
our courts of justice", H. Otley Beyer and José I. Del Rosario, both of UP.[84]

Historians also refer to 11 eyewitnesses when Rizal wrote his retraction, signed a Catholic
prayer book, and recited Catholic prayers, and the multitude who saw him kiss the crucifix
before his execution. A great grand nephew of Rizal, Fr. Marciano Guzman, cites that
Rizal's 4 confessions were certified by 5 eyewitnesses, 10 qualified witnesses, 7
newspapers, and 12 historians and writers including Aglipayan bishops, Masons and anti-
clericals.[90] One witness was the head of the Spanish Supreme Court at the time of his
notarized declaration and was highly esteemed by Rizal for his integrity.[91]

Because of what he sees as the strength these direct evidence have in the light of the
historical method, in contrast with merely circumstantial evidence, UP professor emeritus
of history Nicolas Zafra called the retraction "a plain unadorned fact of history."[84] Guzmán
attributes the denial of retraction to "the blatant disbelief and stubbornness" of some
Masons.[90] To explain the retraction Guzman said that the factors are the long discussion
and debate which appealed to reason and logic that he had with Fr. Balaguer, the visits of
his mentors and friends from the Ateneo, and the grace of God due the numerous prayers
of religious communities.[90]

Supporters see in the retraction Rizal's "moral courage...to recognize his

mistakes,"[86][note 14] his reversion to the "true faith", and thus his "unfading glory,"[91] and a
return to the "ideals of his fathers" which "did not diminish his stature as a great patriot; on
the contrary, it increased that stature to greatness."[94] On the other hand, lawyer and
senator José W. Diokno stated at a human rights lecture, "Surely whether Rizal died as a
Catholic or an apostate adds or detracts nothing from his greatness as a Filipino... Catholic
or Mason, Rizal is still Rizal – the hero who courted death 'to prove to those who deny our
patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and our beliefs'."[95]
"Mi último adiós"
The poem is more aptly titled "Adiós, Patria Adorada" (literally "Farewell, Beloved
Fatherland"), by virtue of logic and literary tradition, the words coming from the first line of
the poem itself. It first appeared in print not in Manila but in Hong Kong in 1897, when a
copy of the poem and an accompanying photograph came to J. P. Braga who decided to
publish it in a monthly journal he edited. There was a delay when Braga, who greatly
admired Rizal, wanted a good facsimile of the photograph and sent it to be engraved in
London, a process taking well over two months. It finally appeared under "Mi último
pensamiento," a title he supplied and by which it was known for a few years. Thus, the
Jesuit Balaguer's anonymous account of the retraction and the marriage to Josephine was
published in Barcelona before word of the poem's existence had reached him and he could
revise what he had written. His account was too elaborate for Rizal to have had time to write
"Adiós."

Six years after his death, when the Philippine Organic Act of 1902 was being debated in the
United States Congress, Representative Henry Cooper of Wisconsin rendered an English
translation of Rizal's valedictory poem capped by the peroration, "Under what clime or
what skies has tyranny claimed a nobler victim?"[96] Subsequently, the US Congress passed
the bill into law, which is now known as the Philippine Organic Act of 1902.[97]

This was a major breakthrough for a U.S. Congress that had yet to grant the equal rights to
African Americans guaranteed to them in the U.S. Constitution and at a time the Chinese
Exclusion Act was still in effect. It created the Philippine legislature, appointed two Filipino
delegates to the U.S. Congress, extended the U.S. Bill of Rights to Filipinos and laid the
foundation for an autonomous government. The colony was on its way to independence.[97]
The United States passed the Jones Law that made the legislature fully autonomous until
1916 but did not recognize Philippine independence until the Treaty of Manila in 1946—fifty
years after Rizal's death. This same poem, which has inspired independence activists
across the region and beyond, was recited (in its Indonesian translation by Rosihan Anwar)
by Indonesian soldiers of independence before going into battle.[98]
Later life of Bracken
Josephine Bracken, whom Rizal addressed as his wife on his last day,[99] promptly joined
the revolutionary forces in Cavite province, making her way through thicket and mud
across enemy lines, and helped reloading spent cartridges at the arsenal in Imus under the
revolutionary General Pantaleón García. Imus came under threat of recapture that the
operation was moved, with Bracken, to Maragondon, the mountain redoubt in Cavite.[100]

She witnessed the Tejeros Convention prior to returning to Manila and was summoned by
the Governor-General, but owing to her stepfather's American citizenship she could not be
forcibly deported. She left voluntarily returning to Hong Kong. She later married another
Filipino, Vicente Abad, a mestizo acting as agent for the Tabacalera firm in the Philippines.
She died of tuberculosis in Hong Kong on March 15, 1902, and was buried at the Happy
Valley Cemetery.[100] She was immortalized by Rizal in the last stanza of Mi Ultimo Adios:
"Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, my joy...".

Polavieja and Blanco

Polavieja faced condemnation by his countrymen after his return to Spain. While visiting
Girona, in Catalonia, circulars were distributed among the crowd bearing Rizal's last verses,
his portrait, and the charge that Polavieja was responsible for the loss of the Philippines to
Spain.[101] Ramon Blanco later presented his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an
apology.[102]

Criticism and controversies

Attempts to debunk legends surrounding Rizal, and the tug of war between freethinker and
Catholic, have kept his legacy controversial.

Rizal Shrine in Calamba, Laguna,

the ancestral house and birthplace
of José Rizal, is now a museum
housing Rizal memorabilia.

National hero status

The confusion over Rizal's real stance on the Philippine Revolution leads to the sometimes
bitter question of his ranking as the nation's premier hero.[103][104] But then again, according
to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Section Chief Teodoro
Atienza, and Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo, there is no Filipino historical figure,
including Rizal, that was officially declared a national hero through law or executive
order,[105][106] although, there were laws and proclamations honoring Filipino heroes.

Made national hero by colonial

Americans
Some suggest that Jose Rizal was made a legislated national hero by the American forces
occupying the Philippines. In 1901, the American Governor General William Howard Taft
suggested that the U.S.-sponsored Philippine Commission name Rizal a national hero for
Filipinos. Jose Rizal was an ideal candidate, favourable to the American occupiers since he
was dead, and non-violent, a favourable quality which, if emulated by Filipinos, would not
threaten the American rule or change the status quo of the occupiers of the Philippine
islands. Rizal did not advocate independence for the Philippines either.[107] Subsequently,
the US-sponsored commission passed Act No. 346 which set the anniversary of Rizal's
death as a “day of observance.”[108]

Renato Constantino writes Rizal is a "United States-sponsored hero" who was promoted as
the greatest Filipino hero during the American colonial period of the Philippines – after
Aguinaldo lost the Philippine–American War. The United States promoted Rizal, who
represented peaceful political advocacy (in fact, repudiation of violent means in general)
instead of more radical figures whose ideas could inspire resistance against American rule.
Rizal was selected over Andrés Bonifacio who was viewed "too radical" and Apolinario
Mabini who was considered "unregenerate."[109]

Made national hero by Emilio Aguinaldo

On the other hand, numerous sources[110] quote that it was General Emilio Aguinaldo, and
not the second Philippine Commission, who first recognized December 30 as "national day
of mourning" in memory of Rizal and other victims of Spanish tyranny. As per them, the first
celebration of Rizal Day was held in Manila on December 30, 1898, under the sponsorship
of the Club Filipino.[111]

The veracity of both claims seems to be justified and hence difficult to ascertain. However,
most historians agree that a majority of Filipinos were unaware of Rizal during his
lifetime,[112] as he was a member of the richer elite classes (he was born in an affluent
family, had lived abroad for nearly as long as he had lived in the Philippines) and wrote
primarily in an elite language (at that time, Tagalog and Cebuano were the languages of the
masses) about ideals as lofty as freedom (the masses were more concerned about day to
day issues like earning money and making a living, something which has not changed much
today).[113]

Teodoro Agoncillo opines that the Philippine national hero, unlike those of other countries,
is not "the leader of its liberation forces". He gives the opinion that Andrés Bonifacio not
replace Rizal as national hero, as some have suggested, but that be honored alongside
him.[114]

Constantino's analysis has been criticised for its polemicism and inaccuracies regarding
Rizal.[115] The historian Rafael Palma, contends that the revolution of Bonifacio is a
consequence wrought by the writings of Rizal and that although the Bonifacio's revolver
produced an immediate outcome, the pen of Rizal generated a more lasting
achievement.[116]

Critiques of books
Others present him as a man of contradictions. Miguel de Unamuno in "Rizal: the Tagalog
Hamlet", said of him, “a soul that dreads the revolution although deep down desires it. He
pivots between fear and hope, between faith and despair.”[117] His critics assert this
character flaw is translated into his two novels where he opposes violence in Noli Me
Tángere and appears to advocate it in Fili, contrasting Ibarra's idealism to Simoun's
cynicism. His defenders insist this ambivalence is trounced when Simoun is struck down in
the sequel's final chapters, reaffirming the author's resolute stance, Pure and spotless must
the victim be if the sacrifice is to be acceptable.[118]

Many thinkers tend to find the characters of María Clara and Ibarra (Noli Me Tángere) poor
role models, María Clara being too frail, and young Ibarra being too accepting of
circumstances, rather than being courageous and bold.[119]

In El Filibusterismo, Rizal had Father Florentino say: “...our liberty will (not) be secured at
the sword's point...we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when a people
reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will
crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first dawn.”[118] Rizal's
attitude to the Philippine Revolution is also debated, not only based on his own writings, but
also due to the varying eyewitness accounts of Pío Valenzuela, a doctor who in 1895 had
consulted Rizal in Dapitan on behalf of Bonifacio and the Katipunan.
Role in the Philippine Revolution
Upon the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896, Valenzuela surrendered to the
Spanish authorities and testified in military court that Rizal had strongly condemned an
armed struggle for independence when Valenzuela asked for his support. Rizal had even
refused him entry to his house. Bonifacio, in turn, had openly denounced him as a coward
for his refusal.[note 15]

However, years later, Valenzuela testified that Rizal had been favorable to an uprising as
long as the Filipinos were well-prepared, and well-supplied with arms. Rizal had suggested
that the Katipunan get wealthy and influential Filipino members of society on their side, or
at least ensure they would stay neutral. Rizal had even suggested his friend Antonio Luna to
lead the revolutionary forces since he had studied military science.[note 16] In the event that
the Katipunan was discovered prematurely, they should fight rather than allow themselves
to be killed. Valenzuela said to historian Teodoro Agoncillo that he had lied to the Spanish
military authorities about Rizal's true stance toward a revolution in an attempt to exculpate
him.[120]

Before his execution, Rizal wrote a proclamation denouncing the revolution. But as noted
by historian Floro Quibuyen, his final poem Mi ultimo adios contains a stanza which equates
his coming execution and the rebels then dying in battle as fundamentally the same, as both
are dying for their country.[121]

Legacy and remembrance

Rizal was a contemporary of Gandhi, Tagore and Sun Yat Sen who also advocated liberty
through peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. Coinciding with the appearance
of those other leaders, Rizal from an early age had been enunciating in poems, tracts and
plays, ideas all his own of modern nationhood as a practical possibility in Asia. In Noli Me
Tángere, he stated that if European civilization had nothing better to offer, colonialism in
Asia was doomed.[note 17]
 Government poster from the 1950s

Though popularly mentioned, especially on blogs, there is no evidence to suggest that

Gandhi or Nehru may have corresponded with Rizal, nor have they mentioned him in any of
their memoirs or letters. But it was documented by Rizal's biographer, Austin Coates who
interviewed Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi that Rizal was mentioned, specifically in Nehru's
prison letters to his daughter Indira.[122][123]

As a political figure, José Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that
subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan led by Andrés Bonifacio,[note 18], a secret society
which would start the Philippine Revolution against Spain that eventually laid the foundation
of the First Philippine Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of achieving
Philippine self-government peacefully through institutional reform rather than through
violent revolution, and would only support "violent means" as a last resort.[125] Rizal
believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government was the
restoration of the dignity of the people,[note 19] saying "Why independence, if the slaves of
today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?"[126] However, through careful examination of his
works and statements, including Mi Ultimo Adios, Rizal reveals himself as a revolutionary.
His image as the Tagalog Christ also intensified early reverence to him.

Rizal, through his reading of Morga and other western historians, knew of the genial image
of Spain's early relations with his people.[127] In his writings, he showed the disparity
between the early colonialists and those of his day, with the latter's injustices giving rise to
Gomburza and the Philippine Revolution of 1896. The English biographer, Austin Coates,
and writer, Benedict Anderson, believe that Rizal gave the Philippine revolution a genuinely
national character; and that Rizal's patriotism and his standing as one of Asia's first
intellectuals have inspired others of the importance of a national identity to nation-
building.[35][note 20]

The Belgian researcher Jean Paul "JP" Verstraeten authored several books about Jose Rizal:
Rizal in Belgium and France, Jose Rizal's Europe, Growing up like Rizal (published by the
National Historical Institute and in teacher's programs all over the Philippines),
Reminiscences and Travels of Jose Rizal and Jose Rizal "Pearl of Unselfishness". He
received an award from the president of the Philippines "in recognition of his unwavering
support and commitment to promote the health and education of disadvantaged Filipinos,
and his invaluable contribution to engender the teachings and ideals of Dr. Jose Rizal in the
Philippines and in Europe". One of the greatest researchers about Rizal nowadays is Lucien
Spittael.

Rizal enjoys a contemporary following from various groups collectively known as the
Rizalistas.[129] The Order of the Knights of Rizal, a civic and patriotic organization, boasts of
dozens of chapters all over the globe.[130][131] There are some remote-area religious sects
who venerate Rizal as a Folk saint collectively known as the Rizalista religious movements,
who claim him as a sublimation of Christ.[132] In September 1903, he was canonized as a
saint in the Philippine Independent Church, however, it was revoked in the 1950s.[133]

Species named after Rizal

José Rizal was imprisoned at Fort Santiago and soon after he was banished at Dapitan
where he plunged himself into studying nature. He was then able to collect a number of
species of various classes: insects, butterflies, amphibians, reptiles, shells, snakes, and
plants.

Rizal sent many specimens of animals, insects, and plants for identification to the
(Anthropological and Ethnographical Museum of Dresden[134]), Dresden Museum of
Ethnology. It was not in his interest to receive any monetary payment; all he wanted were
scientific books, magazines and surgical instruments which he needed and used in Dapitan.
During his exile, Rizal also secretly sent several specimens of flying dragons to Europe. He
believed that they were a new species. The German zoologist Benno Wandolleck named
them Draco rizali after Rizal. However, it has since been discovered that the species had
already been described by the Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1885 as
Draco guentheri.[135]

There are three animal species that Rizal personally collected specimens of and that were
posthumously named after him:

Draco rizali – a small lizard known as

a flying dragon
Apogonia rizali – a very rare kind of
beetle with five horns
Rhacophorus rizali – a peculiar frog
species, now synonymized with
Rhacophorus pardalis.[136]
There are also other species discovered afterward in the Philippines that have been
explicitly dedicated to the memory of Rizal:

Aedes rizali – a mosquito[137]

Conus rizali – a sea snail[138]
Hogna rizali – a spider[139]
 Kalayaan rizali – a mite[140]
Spathomeles rizali – a beetle[141]
Pachyrhynchus rizali – a weevil[142]
Apart from these, entomologist Nathan Banks applied the specific epithet rizali to a number
of insect species from the Philippines (Chrysopa rizali, Ecnomus rizali, Hemerobius rizali,
Hydropsyche rizali, Java rizali, Psocus rizali, etc.). Though he did not explain why, it was
probably intended as a homage to Rizal as well.

Historical commemoration

Although his field of action lay in

politics, Rizal's real interests lay in the
arts and sciences, in literature and in
his profession as an ophthalmologist.
Shortly after his death, the
Anthropological Society of Berlin met
to honor him with a reading of a
German translation of his farewell
poem and Rudolf Virchow delivering
the eulogy.[143]
The Rizal Monument now stands near
the place where he fell at the Luneta
in Bagumbayan, which is now called
Rizal Park, a national park in Manila.
The monument, which also contains
his remains, was designed by the
Swiss Richard Kissling of the William
Tell sculpture in Altdorf, Uri.[note 21]
The monument carries the inscription:
"I want to show to those who deprive
people the right to love of country,
that when we know how to sacrifice
ourselves for our duties and
convictions, death does not matter if
one dies for those one loves – for his
country and for others dear to
him."[28]
The Taft Commission in June 1901
approved Act No. 137 creating the
Province of Rizal out of the old
District of Morong and Province of
Manila. Today, the wide acceptance
of Rizal is evidenced by the countless
towns, streets, and numerous parks
in the Philippines named in his
honor.[145]
Republic Act No. 1425, known as the
Rizal Law, was passed in 1956 by the
Philippine legislature requiring all high
schools and colleges to offer courses
about his life, works and writings.
Yearly on June 19, a special non-
working holiday in commemoration of
his birth is observed at his home
province of Laguna.[146]
Monuments erected in his honor can
be found in Madrid;[147] Cádiz,
Spain;[148] Tokyo;[149] Wilhelmsfeld,
Germany; Jinjiang, China;
Chicago;[150] Jersey City, New Jersey;
Cherry Hill, New Jersey;[151]
Honolulu;[152] San Diego;[153] Los
Angeles, including the suburbs of
Carson and West Covina (both near
the headquarters of Seafood City);
Mexico City;[154] Lima, Peru;[155]
Litoměřice, Czech Republic;[156]
Toronto;[157] Markham;[158] and
Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[159]
Monuments sculpted in honor of Rizal
are also built at various town plazas
or city parks in various towns and
cities in the Philippines, usually found
in the poblacion.[160]
A two-sided marker bearing a
painting of Rizal by Fabián de la Rosa
on one side and a bronze bust relief
of him by Philippine artist Guillermo
Tolentino stands at the Asian
Civilisations Museum Green marking
his visits to Singapore in 1882, 1887,
1891 and 1896.[161]
A Rizal bronze bust was erected at La
Molina District, Lima, Peru, designed
by Czech sculptor Hanstroff,
mounted atop a pedestal base with
four inaugural plaque markers with
the following inscription on one: "Dr.
José P. Rizal, Héroe Nacional de
Filipinas, Nacionalista, Reformador
Political, Escritor, Lingüistica y Poeta,
1861–1896."[162][163]
A Rizal bust sits in front of the Filipino
American Council of Chicago,
celebrating a one-day visit Rizal
made to Chicago on May 11, 1888, as
seen below.
A plaque marks the Wilhelmsfeld
building where he trained with
Professor Becker. There is a small
park in Wilhelmsfeld named after
Rizal with a bronze statue of Rizal,
and the street where he lived on was
also renamed after him.
Wilhelmsfeld's local government
gifted the sandstone fountain in
Pastor Ullmer's house garden where
Rizal lived to the Philippine
government and is now located at
Rizal Park in Manila.[164]
In Heidelberg, a small stretch along
the Neckar River is named after Rizal.
In 2014, a commemorative sandstone
plaque was placed there in Rizal's
honor.[165]
Throughout 2011, the National
Historical Institute and other
institutions organized several
activities commemorating the 150th
birth anniversary of Rizal, which took
place on June 19 of that year.
The London Borough of Camden
placed a Blue Plaque at 37 Chalcot
Crescent, where Rizal lived for some
time, with the words: "Dr. José Rizal,
Writer and National Hero of the
Philippines".
A monument in honor of Rizal was
planned, and built in Rome.[166][167]
In the City of Philadelphia, the 'City of
Murals' first Filipino mural in the US
east coast honoring José Rizal was to
unveiled to the public in time for
Rizal's Sesquicentennial year-long
celebration.[168]
The Grand Oriental Hotel in Colombo,
Sri Lanka has a suite named after
Jose P. Rizal as he had stayed there
in May 1882.[169]
The USS Rizal (DD-174) was a
Wickes-class destroyer named after
Rizal by the United States Navy and
launched on September 21, 1918.
The José Rizal Bridge and Rizal Park
in the city of Seattle are dedicated to
Rizal.[170]
On 19 June 2019, on Rizal's 158th
birthday, he was honored with a
Google Doodle.[171]
A bronze bust of Rizal by F.B. Case
was gifted to the City of Toronto by
the Government of the Philippines in
1998. It is located at Earl Bales Park in
the neighborhood of Lansing.[157]
A monument by Mogi Mogado was
unveiled at Luneta Gardens (a similar
name as that of the park where Rizal
is buried—Luneta Park or now as
Rizal Park) in 2019 as a gift from the
Filipino Canadian community of
Markham to the City of Markham. It is
located in the Box Grove area of
Markham, Ontario, near Rizal Avenue,
which is also named for him.[172]
A Jose Rizal-class frigate of the
Philippine Navy was built by Hyundai
Heavy Industries. Two ships were
ordered in 2016. They are the first
guided missile frigate to enter service
with the Philippine Navy. The lead
ship, BRP Jose Rizal, arrived in the
Philippines on May 22, 2020.[173]
In the 9th arrondissement of Paris,
Place José Rizal is a small square
named after Rizal. In 2022 a bust of
Rizal (by sculptor Gérard Lartigue)
was erected in the square which is in
the Rue de Maubeuge, a street
frequented by Rizal.[174][175]
 Close-up Rizal Rizal on the
image of Monument, obverse side
Rizal's Manila of a 1970
statue at the Philippine
Rizal peso coin
Monument
in Manila
The Rizal The Portrait The
Park at the of Rizal, USS Rizal (D
Bulacan painted in oil D-174)
State by Juan launched in
University Luna 1918
 The statue The National The Hong
of Rizal at Historical Kong
the Rizal Institute logo Government
Park in for the 150th erected a
Wilhelmsfeld birth plaque
, Germany anniversary beside José
of José Rizal Rizal's
residence in
Hong Kong.
BRP Jose
Rizal (FF-
150) during
the
launching
ceremony
Rizal in popular culture

Adaptation of his works

The cinematic depiction of Rizal's literary works won two film industry awards more than a
century after his birth. In the 10th Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards
ceremony, Rizal was honored in the Best Story category for Gerardo de León's adaptation
of his book Noli Me Tángere. The recognition was repeated the following year with his
movie version of El Filibusterismo, making him the only person to win back-to-back
FAMAS Awards.[176]

Both novels were translated into opera by the composer-librettist Felipe Padilla de León:
Noli Me Tángere in 1957 and El filibusterismo in 1970; and his 1939 overture, Mariang
Makiling, was inspired by Rizal's tale of the same name.[177]

Ang Luha at Lualhati ni Jeronima is a film inspired by the third chapter of Rizal's El
filibusterismo.[178]

Biographical films / TV series

Portrayed by Eddie del Mar in the

1956 film Ang Buhay at Pag-ibig ni Dr.
Jose Rizal