LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL

JOSE RIZAL’S FORMATIVE YEARS

The beliefs of my childhood have given way to the
convictions of youth, which I hope in time will
take root in me. Any essential belief that does not
stand review and the test of time must pass on to
the realm of memory and leave the heart.
TRAGEDIES IN RIZAL’S YOUNG LIFE
It was with a sad heart that Francisco
Rizal finally sent Jose Rizal off to a school in
Manila.
The boy was now eleven years of age. His
brother Paciano was studying in the
College of San Jose under its famous
teacher Fr. Jose Burgos, a noble and
courageous Filipino priest.
Jose Rizal came face to face with another
tragedy in his young life. He found Paciano
distracted over the execution of the his
beloved Fr. Jose Burgos, who was convicted of
inciting mutiny, an insurrection or uprising
against civil , legal, or political authority.

The early education of Rizal was an important

aspect of his political thought.
Like many children of the well-to-do, he
received his early education at home. He had
private tutors, but it quickly became obvious
that he was advanced beyond his years.
Although he attended school in Calamba,
young Jose primarily educated himself in the
family library.

Through conversation with family and friends,

Finally it was decided that he would attend
the prestigious Ateneo Municipal de Manila in
Intramuros, which means “within walls”.
The Rizal family now determined the Jose should
continue his education in Manila.
He was making preparations to depart when an
injustice occurred and threw a shadow across his
happy young life. His mother was thrown into
prison, accused of a crime of which she was wholly
incapable of doing that everybody knew it was a
pure fabrication.

She was charged with conspiracy with her brother,

Alberto Realonda , to kill his wife, who had
separated from him.
THE EXECUTION OF GOMBURZA
On the night of January 20, 1872, some 200 Filipino
and Spanish mestizo workers and soldiers rose in
mutiny in Cavite because of the abolition of their
usual privileges including exemption from tribute
and polo y servicio (forced labor) by the Governor
General Rafael de Izquierdo.

Three priests were implicated in the mutiny, tried,

and sentenced to die on February 17, 1872.
The three priest were Fr. Mariano Gomez, Fr. Jose
Burgos, Fr. Jacinto Zamora. They were known as
(Gomburza)
Fr. Gomez was a native of Cavite , a parish priest of
Bacoor, and more than 70 years old at the time of
execution. Fr. Burgos was described by the Spanish
newspaper La Nacion as a “Spaniard born in the
Philippines and a parish priest of the Manila
Cathedral”.
Fr. Zamora was also a Spaniard born in the
Philippines and a parish priest of Marikina. He had
given serious offense to the Spanish authorities,
specifically Brigader Oran, the governor of Manila in
1867.
Fr. Zamora denied him the honors due to any
provincial governor when he made a trip to
Marikina.
 THE IMPRISONMENT AND
RELEASE OF DONA TEODORA 
During Jose’s two-year stay in Ateneo, his mother
was imprisoned in Santa Cruz. Dona Teodora
allegedly conspired with her brother Jose Alberto to
poison his wife. Then she was released for a reason
that revealed more plainly than ever how little
justice existed during that period. The Governor
General, Rafael Izquierdo , happened to be visiting
Calamba.
Some little girls danced for his entertainment. One
of them was so pretty and did her steps so
charmingly that the Governor General called her to
his side and said:
Some little girls danced for his entertainment.
One of them was so pretty and did her steps
so charmingly that the Governor General
called her to his side and said:
“What present can I give you , charming little
dancer?”
“Oh please, Governor,” she answered, “release
my mother from prison”.
“Who is this little girl’s mother? Set her free!”
cried the Governador General.
The pretty girl was Jose’s sister, Soledad. Her
mother was at once released and the case
dismissed without a trial.
The execution of Gomburza and the imprisonment
of Dona Teodora were fearful shocks for an
idealistic young scholar to endure at one time, and
the burned ineradicably into his soul.

“Under the sense of an intolerable wrong, all the

reset of his life, he seemed a lonely and rather
melancholy figure. A feeling grew upon him that the
misfortunes of his people were to be the business of
his life”.
RIZAL’S FORMATIVE YEARS IN ATENEO
Prior to Ateneo, Rizal took and passed the entrance
exam at Colegio de San Juan de Letran , but his
father Francisco opted for Ateneo. On June 10,
1872, Paciano accompanied Jose to matriculate at
the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. Fr. Magin Ferrando,
the registrar of Ateneo at first refused to admit Jose
for two reasons; (1) he was late for registration and
(2) he appeared sickly and undersized for his age.
Upon the intercession of Manuel Xerez-Burgos,
nephew of Fr. Burgos, Rizal was reluctantly
admitted to Ateneo.
The role of the Jesuits in Philippine education is
very important. After they were expelled from the
Philippine archipelago in 1768, the order remained
dormant until its members returned in 1859. When
the Jesuits re-emerged to convert the Mindanao
population, they were also asked to take charge of
Ateneo.
By 1865 Ateneo was a secondary school that
offered rigorous courses almost equivalent to
college academics. Ateneo was considered the
finest school in the Philippines because of the
rigorous intellectual standards of the Jesuits.
Following the rigid methodical habits which he
had learned from his father and his Jesuit
teachers, Jose prepared a schedule so that he
would not lose an hour: study and reading
until four pm, and social and miscellaneous
obligations from five to six pm. This careful
management of his time yielded results
almost at once. He began at the bottom of the
school, but within a month he became
“Emperor of Carthaginian.”
Ateneo had divided the students into two
“empires,” Roman and Carthaginian to
fight for academic supremacy. It was this
war that brought Rizal triumph and
prizes. At the end of the first quarter, he
received the grade “excellent.”
The schedule he followed gave him extra time for
reading. The first foreign book he read. The Count
of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, reminded him
all the sufferings of his mother in prison and of his
motherland. Conditions worse than those which
Dumas had described in his book were present all
over the Philippines during that time.
But the book which intrigued him was Dr. Feodor
Jagor’s travels in the Philippines. Jagor was a
German naturalist who had visited the Philippines
fifteen years before and had made some very wise
and prophetic comments.
His book severely criticized the Spanish regime:
“Government monopolies, insolent disregard, and
neglect were the chief reasons for the down fall of
Spain’s possessions. The same causes threaten
ruin to the Philippines..
It was in this environment that Jose Rizal began the
education that would solidify his political thoughts.
RIZAL’S EARLY WRITINGS ON
EDUCATION
While at Ateneo, Rizal won a special prize in poetry
for “A La Juventud Filipina” (“To The Philippine
Youth”) and he cultivated the intellectual direction
which led to his nationalistic writings. While
attending Ateneo, Rizal developed into a first-rate
student. He was remembered as an original thinker,
a creative scholar, and a natural leader. He did not
only became the leader of his fellow students, but
he also took up fencing and gymnastics. The most
noticeable change in Rizal’s education was his
mastery of Spanish.
(“To The Philippine Youth”)
Hold high the brow serene, Softer than ambrosial rain;
O youth, where now you stand; Thou, whose voice divine
Rivals Philomel's refrain
Let the bright sheen And with varied line
Of your grace be seen, Through the night benign
Fair hope of my fatherland! Frees mortality from pain;

Come now, thou genius grand, Thou, who by sharp strife

And bring down inspiration; Wakest thy mind to life ;
With thy mighty hand, And the memory bright
Of thy genius' light
Swifter than the wind's violation, Makest immortal in its strength ;
Raise the eager mind to higher station.
And thou, in accents clear
Come down with pleasing light Of Phoebus, to Apelles dear ;
Of art and science to the fight, Or by the brush's magic art
O youth, and there untie Takest from nature's store a part,
The chains that heavy lie, To fig it on the simple canvas' length ;
Your spirit free to blight.
See how in flaming zone Go forth, and then the sacred fire
Amid the shadows thrown, Of thy genius to the laurel may aspire ;
To spread around the fame,
The Spaniard’s holy hand And in victory acclaim,
A crown's resplendent band Through wider spheres the human name.
Proffers to this Indian land.
Day, O happy day,
Thou, who now wouldst rise Fair Filipinas, for thy land!
On wings of rich emprise, So bless the Power to-day
Seeking from Olympian skies That places in thy way
Songs of sweetest strain, This favor and this fortune grand!
When Rizal began school, he was only
moderately successful in speaking and
writing Spanish. But Rizal worked hard and
read constantly until finally Fr. Francisco de
Paula Sanchez remarked that he was
becoming proficient in the language. At this
point Rizal began writing in Spanish. Most of
his famous works were written in that
language.
It was Fr. Sanchez who recognized Rizal’s
talent as a poet and encouraged him to
practice this craft. Rizal’s student poem were
impressionistic and amateurish, but they
contained the seeds of his future
nationalism.
As a member of the Society of Muses, Rizal enjoyed
himself but increasingly found his poem expressing
a national theme. He could see a sense of Philippine
nationalism in writing about flowers; even his early
poems suggested a critical voice that castigated the
Spanish for their foibles and follies.
Fr. Jose Villaclara, who instructed Rizal in the
sciences and philosophy, played an equally
important role in Rizal’s writing. He was a young
man who believed that Rizal was wasting his time
with poetry.
He develop a scientific curiosity in young Rizal that
lasted until his death. It was Fr. Villaclara who
convinced Rizal to take a “scientific attitude” about
life. His classes encouraged Rizal to express his
earliest national ideas. He was determined to serve
his people. That service would define the key
elements of Philippine nationalism.

A poem that Rizal wrote during his Ateneo years,

“Por la Educacion Recibe Lustre la Patria” (Through
Education Our Motherland Receives Light).
Suggested that education is an integral part of the
national character.
Again while in Ateneo in 1876 he composed a poem
entitled “Alianza intima la religion y la educacion”
(“The “Intimate Alliance between Religion and
Education”) in which Rizal expressed the importance
of religion in education and to him Education
without God is not true Education.
The Jesuits did not envision Rizal as an intellectual
radical. With his good manners, understated way of
speaking and writing, and his well-dressed, often
deferential character, he appeared like most other
students. In fact Fr. Sanchez read his poems, he
failed to see the beginnings of an enthusiastic
leader.
An examination of Rizal’s student memoirs, as well as his
diaries, suggested that his Ateneo years were formative
ones. He did not only developed scientific skills but a
critical sense of writing in the Spanish as well. Eventually
Rizal would excel as a scientist, a fiction writer, a
nationalist, and a medical doctor. All these would have
been impossible without his early education.
RIZAL’S EARLY RELIGIOUS WRITINGS
Rizal’s devotion to the Mother and Son was further
manifested when he wrote during his Ateneo days two
separate religious poems. One was titled “A la Virgen
Maria” (“To the Virgin Mary”), and the other was “Al Nino
Jesus” (“To the Child Jesus”). One night as Rizal was
visiting his parents in Calamba, he stepped out into the
dark street as a man was passing. He failed to see that
the passerby was one of the civil guards, and so he did
not salute. Suddenly a sword struck him across the back.
When he recovered from the sword wound, which
fortunately was not serious, he complained to the
authorities. He was informed that the civil guard had
done his duty and that, instead of complaining, the victim
ought to be thankful that he was alive.
When he recovered from the sword wound, which
fortunately was not serious, he complained to the
authorities. He was informed that the civil guard had
done his duty and that, instead of complaining, the victim
ought to be thankful that he was alive. It could have
been while he was convalescing that he wrote his lonely
sonnet to the Virgin Mary, the first sad poem he had
written. This poem addressed to the Virgin Mary appears
to be a sonnet. Its last three lines remind one of the
hymn “Mother of Christ” in the Baclaran church novena”.
 TO THE VIRGIN MARY
Dear Mary, giving comfort and sweet peace
To all afflicted mortals; thou the spring
Whence flows a current of relief, to bring
Our soil fertility that does not cease;
Upon thy throne, where thou dost reign on high,
Oh, list with pity as I woeful grieve
And spread the radiant mantle to receive
My voice which rises swiftly to the sky.
Placid Mary, thou my mother dear,
My sustenance, my fortitude must be,
And in this fearsome sea my way must steer.
If deprivation comes to buffet me,
And if grim death in agony draws near,
Oh, succor me. From anguish set me free..
RIZAL’S OTHER EARLY WRITINGS:
Rizal wrote the poem “In Memory of My Village” as he
recalled the joyous days of his childhood in Calamba.
Rizal also wrote “A Farewell Dialogue of the Students”
just before he graduated from Ateneo. On March 23,
1877, not yet sixteen years old, he received the degree of
Bachelor of Arts with highest honors. Five years later he
composed a tribute for the very reverend Fr. Pablo
Ramon, rector of Ateneo, on the occasion of his birthday.
RIZAL’S SCHOLASTIC RECORDS
Jose Rizal’s four years in Ateneo were a continuous
pageant of brilliant scholastic triumphs, which made him
the pride of the Jesuits. According to historian Gregorio
Zaide, Rizal obtained the following scholastic ratings:
Nonetheless Ambeth Ocampo, Filipino revisionist
historian, suggests: “We must never assume that Rizal
graduated valedictorian or at the top of his class.” Rizal
stood out as a student leader and a national
spokesperson, because he had the ability to talk to the
average Filipino.
 1872
SUBJECTS RATINGS
Arithmetic Excellent
1872-73
Latin 1 Excellent
Spanish Excellent
Greek Excellent
1873-74
Latin 2 Excellent
Spanish Excellent
Greek Excellent
Geography Excellent
1874-75
Latin 3 Excellent
Spanish Excellent
Greek Excellent
General History Excellent
History of Spain and the Philippines Excellent
Arithmetic and Algebra Excellent
18871111 1875-76

Rhetoric and Poetry Excellent

French Excellent

Geometry and Trigonometry Excellent

1876-77

Philosophy Excellent

Mineralogy & Chemistry Excellent

Philosophy 2 Excellent

Physics Excellent

Botany and Zoology Excellent

THANK YOU!!!
 REPORTER:
CHRISEL MARIE BRAGA
INSTRUCTOR:
MA’AM SHEILA MAY BAAL