Childhood and

Early Education
Rizal had a good memories of childhood in Calamba. As a
family, they prayed together during Angelus. They used to
spend time in the garden where he learned to appreciate the
beauty of nature. Due to his poor health, Rizal had a
personal servant who, after the daily Angelus, would tell
him legends and fairy tales. These stories made him become
interested in myths and folklores.
As a young boy, Rizal demonstrated intelligence and learned easily.
His first teacher was Doña Teodora who taught him how to pray.
He was only three years old when he learned the alphabet. Rizal also experience private
tutorials.
His first private tutor was Maestro Celestino followed by Maestro Lucas Padua.
Leon Monroy- his third tutor, who honed his skills in basic Latin, reading, and writing.

At the age of nine, Rizal left Calamba with his brother to study in Biñan.
They reached the town on board a carromata. Before Paciano left Rizal, he introduced him to
his former teacher, Justiniano Aquino Cruz. The class as described by Rizal was in a nipa
house. It was in this school that he excelled in Latin Spanish.

After receiving a letter from his sister, Saturnina, Rizal returned to Calamba on December 17,
1870 on board the steamship Talim and was accompanied by Arturo Camps, a Frenchman and
friend of his father.
Student of Manila
Rizal was sent by his father to Ateneo Municipal, formerly known as Escuela Pia,
for a six-year program, Bachiller en Artes.

He took the entrance exam on June 10, 1872 using Jose Rizal instead of Jose
Mercado. Their students were divided into two groups, the Romans and the
Carthaginians.

The Roman empire was composed of students boarding at Ateneo.

The Carthaginian Empire was composed of non-boarding students.

Rizal became the emperor, a title given to the most outstanding student in class, in
just a month’s time. He consistently excel in his class and passed the oral exam on
March 14, 1877 and graduated with a degree of Bachiller en Artes, with the
highest honor.
After finishing Bachiller en Artes, Rizal was
sent to University of Santo Tomas by Don
Francisco. He attended the course Philosophy
and Letters and in the same year he took the
vocational course in Ateneo that gave him the
title perito agrimensor (expert surveyor)
issued on November 25, 1881.
Rizal in Europe
May 3, 1882, Rizal left the Philippines for Spain.
He was only 20 years old and as a young man, he was very
observant and eager to interact with foreigners. He made
sketches of his fellow passengers and of the things he saw
during his travel.

June 16, 1882- he arrived at Barcelona and meet his former

classmates in Ateneo who organized a welcome party for him
at a coffee house in Plaza de Cataluña. It was in this city that
Rizal wrote an essay entitled “El Amor Patrio” (Love of
Country). This essay was published on August 20, 1882 in
Diariong Tagalog where he used his pen name Laong Laan.
In between his studies, Rizal made time for meeting
fellow Filipinos in Madrid known as illustrados, these
Filipinos formed the Circulo Hispano-Filipino which
held informal programs with the activities like poetry-
reading and debates. As a prolific writer and poet, Rizal
was asked to write a poem. As a result, he wrote Mi Piden
Versos (They Ask Me for Verses). It was also in Madrid
that he wrote the first half of his novel, Noli Me Tangere.
On November 15, 1890, he joined the Masonry and
became a Master Mason at the Lodge Solidaridad.
It was also in Madrid, where Rizal met and became attracted to
Consuelo, Don Pablo’s daughter. He wrote a poem for Consuelo
entitled A Señiorita C. O. y R. It was also in Madrid that Rizal
specialized in ophthalmology and trained under Dr. Louis de
Weckert of Paris for whom he worked as an assistant from
October 1885 to March 1886.

Rizal mastered the German language and wrote a paper entitled

Tagalische Verkunst (Tagalog Metrical Art). It was also in
Berlin where he finished Noli Me Tangere which was published
on March 21, 1887 with financial help from his friend Maximo
Viola.
After five years in Europe, Rizal went back
home to Calamba on August 8, 1887.

He came to be known as Doctor Uliman as

he was mistaken for a German.

He left the country for the second time on

February 16, 1888
Rizal’s Second Trip
to Europe
In his second trip, Rizal became more active in the Propaganda
Movement with fellow illustrados like Marcelo H. del Pilar,
Garciano Lopez Jaena, Antonio Luna, Mariano Ponce and
Trinidad Pardo de Tavera.

The Propaganda Movement campaigned for reforms such as:

(1.) for the Philippines to be made a province of Spain so that
native Filipinos would have equal rights accorded to Spaniards;
(2) representation of the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes; and
(3) secularization of parishes.
Rizal became pre-occupied with writing articles and essays
which were published in the Propaganda Movement’s
newspaper, La Solidaridad.
Among his intellectual works in Europe is his annotation of
Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1890) in
which Rizal showed that even before the coming of the
Spaniards, the Filipinos already had developed culture.

By July 1891, while in Brussels, Rizal completed his second

novel, El Filibustirismo, which was published on September
18, 1891 through the help of his friend, Valentin Ventura. He
then decided to return to the Philippines in 1892.
Exile in Dapitan
July 17, 1892- Rizal arrived in Dapitan on board the steamer Cebu.
-was a remote town in Mindanao which served as a politico-military
outpost of the Spaniards in the Philippines.
Captain Ricardo Carnicero- became a
friend of Rizal during his exile.

-He gave Rizal the permission to

explore the place and required him to
report once a week in his office.
The quite place of Dapitan became Rizal’s home
from 1892 to 1896.
• He established a school for boys and promoted
community development projects.
• He also found time to study the Malayan language
and other Philippine languages.
• He engaged himself in farming and commerce and
even invented a wooden machine for making bricks
September 21, 1892, Rizal won the second prize in a lottery together
with Ricardo Carnicero and another Spaniard. His share amounted to
6, 200 pesos.

A portion of Rizal’s winnings was used in purchasing land

approximately one kilometer away from Dapitan in a place known as
Talisay.
He built his house on the seashore of Talisay as well as a school and
a hospital within the area.
George Taufer- suffering from an eye ailment travelled from
Hong Kong to Dapitan.

• He was accompanied by his adopted daughter, Josephine

Bracken, who eventually fell in love with Rizal.
 Josephine Bracken

She was the common-law wife

of Jose Rizal, the country's
national hero.
They lived as husband and wife in Rizal’s
octagonal house after being denied the
sacrament of marriage by Father Obach, the
parish priest of Dapitan, due to Rizal’s refusal to
retract his statements against the Church and to
accept other conditions.
June 21, 1896, Dr. Pio Valenzuela visited
Rizal in Dapitan and informed him about
the founding of Katipunan and the planned
revolution.
On July 30,1896, Rizal’s request to go to
Cuba was approved. He left on the
following day for Manila on board the
steamer España.
September 3, 1896, he boarded the steamer
Isla de Panay which would bring him to
Barcelona.
Upon arriving at the port, however, Governor-General Despujol told him
that there was an order to ship him back to Manila.
On November 3, 1896, Rizal arrived in Manila and was immediately
brought to Fort Santiago(walled city in Manila).
Governor-General Eulogio
Despujol

served as the Spanish

Governor-General of the
Philippines between 1891
and 1893.
Trial and Execution
The preliminary investigation of Rizal’s case began on November 20, 1896. He was
accused of being the main organizer of the revolution. He pleaded not guilty and even
wrote a manifesto appealing to the revolutionaries to discontinue the uprising. Rizal’s
lawyer, Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade, tried his best to save Rizal. However, on
December 26, 1896, the trial ended and sentence was read. Rizal was found guilty
and sentenced to death by firing squad,

On December 28, 1896, Governor-General Camilo de Polavieja signed the court

decision. He later decreed that Rizal be executed by firing squad at 7:00 a.m of
December 30. Rizal on his last remaining days, composed his longest poem, Mi
Ultimo Adios, which was about his farewell to the Filipino people. When his mother
and sisters visited him on December 29, 1896, Rizal gave away his remaining
possessions. He handed his gas lamp to his sister Trinidad and murmured softly in
English, “There is something inside.” Eventually, Trining and her sister Maria would
extract from the lamp the copy of Rizal’s poem.
At 6:30 in the morning of December 30,1896, Rizal, in his black suit with
his arms tied behind his back, walked to Bagumbayan. The orders were given and
shots were fired. Consummatum est! (“It is finished!”) Rizal died offering his life for
his country and its freedom.