family never paid much attention [to our second

surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving

José Rizal was born in 1861 to Francisco
Rizal Mercado y Alejandro and Teodora Alonso
Realonda y Quintos in the town of Calamba in
Laguna province. He had nine sisters and one
brother. His parents were leaseholders of a
hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the
Dominicans. Both their families had adopted the
additional surnames of Rizal and Realonda in 1849,
after Governor General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa
decreed the adoption of Spanish surnames among
the Filipinos for census purposes (though they
already had Spanish names).
Like many families in the Philippines, the
Rizal’s were of mixed origin. José's patrilineal
lineage could be traced back to Fujian in China
through his father's ancestor Lam-Co, a Chinese
merchant who immigrated to the Philippines in the
late 17th century. 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 Manchu invasion during the Transition
from Ming to Qing. He finally decided to stay in the
islands as a farmer. In 1697, to escape the bitter
anti-Chinese prejudice that existed in the
Philippines, he converted to Catholicism, changed
his name to Domingo Mercado and married the
daughter of Chinese friend Augustin Chin-co. On his
mother's side, Rizal's ancestry included Chinese,
Japanese and Tagalog blood. His mother's lineage
can be traced to the affluent Florentina family of
Chinese mestizo families originating in Baliuag,
Bulacan. José Rizal also had Spanish ancestry. His
grandfather was a half Spaniard engineer named
Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo.
From an early age, José showed a
precocious intellect. He learned the alphabet from
his mother at 3, and could read and write at age 5.
Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila,
he dropped the last three names that made up his
full name, on the advice of his brother, Paciano and
the Mercado family, thus rendering his name as
"José Protasio Rizal". Of this, he later wrote: "My
me the appearance of an illegitimate child!" This
was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate
him from his brother, who had gained notoriety
with his earlier links to Filipino priests Mariano
Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (popularly
known as Gomburza) who had been accused and
executed for treason.
Despite the name change, José, as "Rizal"
soon distinguished himself in poetry writing
contests, impressing his professors with his facility
with Castilian and other foreign languages, and
later, in writing essays that were critical of the
Spanish historical accounts of the pre-colonial
Philippine societies. Indeed, by 1891, the year he
finished his El Filibusterismo, this second surname
had become so well known that, as he writes to
another friend, "All my family now carry the name
Rizal instead of Mercado because the name Rizal
means persecution! Good! I too want to join them
and be worthy of this family name...”
Rizal first studied under Justiniano Aquino Cruz in
Biñan, Laguna, before he was sent to Manila.[18]
As to his father's request, he took the entrance
examination in Colegio de San Juan de Letran but
he then enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de
Manila and graduated as one of the nine students
in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding.
He continued his education at the Ateneo
Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and
assessor's degree, and at the same time at the
University of Santo Tomas where he did take up a
preparatory course in law. Upon learning that his
mother was going blind, he decided to switch to
medicine at the medical school of Santo Tomas
specializing later in ophthalmology.
 Without his parents' knowledge and
consent, but secretly supported by his brother
Paciano, he traveled alone to Madrid, Spain in May
1882 and studied medicine at the Universidad
Central de Madrid where 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 left
Heidelberg a poem, "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 in 1887 his eye specialization under the
renowned professor, Otto Becker. There he used
the newly invented ophthalmoscope (invented by
Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his
own 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 bierbrauerie, 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, where he wrote the last few
chapters of Noli Me Tángere.
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 and its
sequel, El filibusterismo.[note 2] These social
commentaries during the Spanish colonization 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.
Rizal's multifacetedness was described by
his German friend, Dr. Adolf Bernhard Meyer, as
"stupendous”. 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. He was also
Freemason, joining Acacia Lodge No. 9 during his
time in Spain and becoming a Master Mason in
1888
The death of Jose Rizal on December 30,
1896 came right after a kangaroo trial convicted
him on all three charges of rebellion, sedition and
conspiracy.
December 30th is the death anniversary of
Dr. Jose Rizal. The death of Jose Rizal came right
after a kangaroo trial convicted him on all three
charges of rebellion, sedition and conspiracy. He
was guided to his cell in Fort Santiago where he
spent his last 24 hours right after the conviction. At
6:00 AM of December 29, 1896, Captain Rafael
Dominguez read Jose Rizal’s death sentence and
declared that he will be shot at 7:00 AM of the next
day in Bagumbayan.
At 8:00 PM of the same day, Jose Rizal had
his last supper and informed Captain Dominguez
that he had forgiven his enemies including the
military judges that condemned him to die. Rizal
heard mass at 3:00 in the morning of December 30,
1896, had confession before taking the Holy
Communion. He took his last breakfast at 5:30 AM
of December 30, 1896 and even had the time to
write two letters one for his family while the other
letter was for his brother Paciano. This was also the
time when his wife, Josephine Bracken and his
sister Josefa arrived and bade farewell to Rizal.
Jose Rizal’s baptismal register

Rizal as a student at the

University of Santo Tomas

Francisco Rizal Mercado

Rizal, 11 years old, a student at the
(1818-1897)
Ateneo Municipal de Manila

Rizal’s house in Calamba, Laguna

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.[24]Almost everything
in his short life is recorded somewhere, being himself
a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, much of the
Business card shows Dr. José Rizal is an Ophthalmologist
material having survived. His biographers, however, in Hong Kong
have faced difficulty in translating his writings because
of Rizal's habit of switching from one language to
another. From December 1891 to June 1892, Rizal lived with
his family in Number 2 of Rednaxela Terrace, Mid-
They drew largely from his travel diaries with their
levels, Hong Kong Island. Rizal used 5 D'Aguilar
insights of a young Asian encountering the West for
Street, Central district, Hong Kong Island, as
the first time. They included his later trips, home and
his ophthalmologist clinic from 2 pm to 6 pm. This
back again to Europe through Japan and the United
States,[25] and, finally, through his self-imposed exile in period of his life included his recorded affections of

Hong Kong. which nine were identified. They were Gertrude

Beckett of Chalcot Crescent, Primrose
Shortly after he graduated from the Ateneo Municipal
Hill, Camden, London, wealthy and high-minded
de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila University), Rizal
Nelly Boustead of the English and Iberian merchant
(who was then 16 years old) and a friend, Mariano
family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family
Katigbak, came to visit Rizal's maternal grandmother
Seiko Usui (affectionately called O-Sei-san), his
in Tondo, Manila. Mariano brought along his sister,
Segunda Katigbak, a 14-year-old Batangueña earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak, Leonor

from Lipa, Batangas. It was the first time they met and Valenzuela, and eight-year romantic relationship
Rizal described Segunda as "rather short, with eyes with a distant cousin, Leonor Rivera (popularly
that were eloquent and ardent at times and languid at thought to be the inspiration for the character
others, rosy–cheeked, with an enchanting and of María Clara in Noli me tangere).
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. Unfortunately for
him, Katigbak was engaged to Manuel Luz.[26]

Further information: Josephine Bracken
In February 1895, Rizal, 33, met Josephine Bracken,
an Irish woman from Hong Kong, when she
accompanied her blind adoptive father, George
Historian Gregorio F. Zaide states 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.[35] He found
records clarifying their names and ages.
Rizal's Brussels stay was short-lived; he moved to

Taufer, to have his eyes checked by Rizal.[32] After Madrid, giving the young Suzanna a box of

frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken fell in love with chocolates. She wrote to him in French: "After your

each other. They applied to marry but, because of departure, I did not take the chocolate. The box is

Rizal's reputation from his writings and political still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t

stance, the local priest Father Obach would only delay too long writing us because I wear out the

hold the ceremony if Rizal could get permission soles of my shoes for running to the mailbox to see

from the Bishop of Cebu. He was unable to obtain if there is a letter from you. There will never be any

an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not home in which you are so loved as in that in

return to Catholicism.[6] Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come
back…"[35] In 2007, Slachmuylders' group arranged
After accompanying her father to Manila on her
for an historical marker honoring Rizal to be placed
return to Hong Kong, and before heading back
at the house.[35]
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.[33] Rizal and Josephine lived as husband and
wife in a common-law marriage in Talisay
in Dapitan. The couple had a son who lived only for
a few hours after Josephine suffered a miscarriage;
Rizal named him after his father Francisco.[34]

In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels as he was

preparing for the publication of his annotations Josephine Bracken was Rizal's common-law wife whom
of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas he reportedly married shortly before his execution
Filipinas (1609). He lived in the boarding house of
the two Jacoby sisters, Catherina and Suzanna, who
had a niece Suzanna ("Thil"), age 16.

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.
 Noli Me Tángere, novel, 1887 (literally Latin for
'touch me not', from John 20:17)[59]
 El Filibusterismo, (novel, 1891), sequel to Noli Me
Tángere
 Alin Mang Lahi ("Whate'er the Race"),
a Kundiman attributed to Dr. José Rizal[60]
 The Friars and the Filipinos (Unfinished)
 Toast to Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo (Speech,
1884), given at Restaurante Ingles, Madrid
 The Diaries of José Rizal
 Rizal's Letters is a compendium of Dr. Jose
Rizal's letters to his family members, Blumentritt,
Fr. Pablo Pastells and other reformers
 "Come se gobiernan las Filipinas" (Governing the
Philippine islands)
 Filipinas dentro de cien años essay, 1889–90
(The Philippines a Century Hence)
 La Indolencia de los Filipinos, essay, 1890 (The
indolence of Filipinos)[61]
 Makamisa unfinished novel
 Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos, essay, 1889,
To the Young Women of Malolos
 Annotations to Antonio de Moragas, Sucesos de
las Islas Filipinas (essay, 1889, Events in the
Philippine Islands)
 A La Juventud Filipina (To The Philippine Youth)
 El Canto Del Viajero
 Briayle Crismarl
 Canto de María Clara
 Himno Al Trabajo (Dalit sa Paggawa)
 Felicitación
 Kundiman (Tagalog)
 Me Piden Versos
 Mi primera inspiracion
 Mi Retiro
 Mi Ultimo Adiós
 Por La Educación (Recibe Lustre La Patria)
 Sa Sanggol na si Jesus
 A Mi Musa (To My Muse)
 Un Recuerdo A Mi Pueblo
 A Man in Dapitan
 El Consejo de los Dioses (The council of Gods)
 Junto Al Pasig (Along the Pasig)[62]:381
 San Euistaquio, Mártyr (Saint Eustache, the
martyr)[63]
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 Museum at Fort
Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. A large replica, made
of concrete, stands in front of Fernando Calderón
Hall, the building which houses the College of
Medicine of the University of the Philippines Manila
along Pedro Gil Street in Ermita, Manila.
The Triumph of Science over Death, by Rizal.
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[clarification needed] of Rizal's
An engraving of the execution of Filipino insurgents at
Catholic marriage to Josephine Bracken.[64] Also there
Bagumbayan (now Luneta).
is an allegation that the retraction document was a
forgery.[65]

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.[66] He called the retraction story a "pious
fraud."[67] Others who deny the retraction are Frank
Laubach,[20] a Protestant minister; Austin Coates,[31] a
British writer; and Ricardo Manapat, director of the Historical marker of José Rizal's execution site.

National Archives.[68]

Those who affirm the authenticity of Rizal's retraction

are prominent Philippine historians such as Nick
Joaquin,[note 12] Nicolas Zafra of UP[69] León María
Guerrero III,[note 13] Gregorio Zaide,[71] Guillermo Gómez
Rivera, Ambeth Ocampo,[68] John
Schumacher,[72] Antonio Molina,[73] Paul
Dumol[74] and Austin Craig.[23] 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 Dr. José I. Del Rosario,
both of UP.[69]