Historical Figure
José Rizal
d. 1896
Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath (1861–1896)
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Biography
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a national hero of the Philippines. An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement in the 1880s, which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.
Timeline
The story of José Rizal, told in moments.
Published Noli Me Tangere in Berlin. A novel exposing the corruption of Spanish colonial rule and the Catholic friars in the Philippines. Written in Spanish. Smuggled copies arrived in Manila wrapped in newspapers.
Returned to Manila and founded La Liga Filipina, a reform organization. Arrested within days and exiled to Dapitan, a remote town in Mindanao, for four years.
Executed by firing squad at Bagumbayan field in Manila. Age 35. He turned to face the sun as the soldiers fired from behind. The Philippines commemorates the day as Rizal Day.
In Their Own Words (20)
I go where there are no slaves, hangmen or oppressors; Where faith does not kill; where the one who reigns is God.
"Mi Ultimo Adios" st. 13 - poem written on the eve of his execution (29 December 1896) - translated from the Spanish by Charles Derbyshire., 1896
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.
Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893), 1893
To doubt God is to doubt one's own conscience, and in consequence it would be to doubt everything.
Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893), 1893
I believe in revelation, but not in revelation which each religion claims to possess... but in the living revelation which surrounds us on every side — 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.
Letter to Fr. Pastells (4 April 1893), 1893
In the Middle Ages, everything bad was the work of the devil, everything good, the work of God. Today, the French see everything in reverse and blame the Germans for it.
Letter to Fr. Pastells (11 November 1892), 1892
Artifacts (15)
The Reign of Greed: A Complete English Version of El Filibusterismo, from the Spanish of José Rizal
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of...
The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere: with Original Illustrations
The Social Cancer, original title Noli me tangere, novel by Filipino political activist and author José Rizal, published in 1887. The book, written in Spanish, is a sweeping and passionate unmasking...
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