The Death of a National Hero

The last days of Rizal were spent in meeting visitors, including Jesuit priests, Josephine, and members of
his family, a Spanish newspaper correspondent by the name of Santiago Mataix, and some friends. No
one knew he was writing a poem – a farewell poem. Rizal, to the end remained a Christian, resigned to
his fate; brave and courageous to meet his destiny. It must have been his religious upbringing and his
closeness to the Jesuit priests that he was calm and cool before his execution.

The last hours of Rizal have been well recorded (76) and are chronologically arranged as follows:

December 29, 1896

6:00 A.M. – Captain Rafael Dominguez reads the death sentence to Rizal to be shot at the back by a
firing squad at 7:00 at Bagumbayan, the next day.

7:00 A.M. – Rizal was moved to the prison chapel, where he spent his last moments. His first visitors
were Father Miguel Saderra Mata (Rector of Ateneo Municipal) and Father Luis Vita, a Jesuit priest and at
one time his teacher.

7:15 A.M. – Rector Sanderra left. Alone with his former teacher, Rizal reminded him of the statuette of
the Sacred Heart of Jesus which he had given him when he was an Ateneo student. It was said that
Father Vita was expecting such reminiscence and got the statuette from his pocket and gave it to him,
which the latter happily placed on his table.

8:00 A.M. – Father Antonio Rosell arrived and replaced Father Vita, at the time that Rizal was eating his
breakfast. Upon invitation, Father Rosell ate with him for breakfast. A few minutes later, his counsel, Lt.
Luis Taviel de Andrade came and Rizal thanked him for his work.

9:00 A.M. – Father Federico Faura arrived, Rizal reminded him of saying once that he would lose his head
for writing the Noli and jokingly told him that he was indeed a prophet.

10:00 A.M. – Another of Rizal’s teacher, Father Jose Villaclara (of Ateneo) and Father Vicente Balaguer,
another Jesuit missionary, whom Rizal befriended in Dapitan visited him. There was also the Spanish
journalist, Santiago Mataix, who interviewed Rizal for his newspaper El Heraldo de Madrid.

12:00 noon to 3:30 P.M. – He was alone and probably spent it in writing his “My Last Farewell”, which he
hid inside his alcohol cooking stove. The cooking stove was given to him as a gift by Paz Pardo de
Tavera, wife of Juan Luna during his visit to Paris in 1890. He also wrote his best friend Dr. F.
Blumentritt, which runs as follows:

Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt

My dear Brother:

When you receive this letter, I shall be dead. Tomorrow at seven, I shall be shot; but, I’m
innocent of the crime of rebellion. I am going to die with a tranquil conscience.

Goodbye, my best, my dearest friend, and never think ill of me.

Fort Santiago, December 29, 1896

(Signed) Jose Rizal

am leaving a book for you as a last remembrance of mine.

3:30 P.M. – Father Balaguer returned to Fort Santiago and talked about Rizal’s retraction of the anti-
Catholic ideas in his anti-Catholic writings and beliefs and also about his membership in the Masonry.

4:00 P.M. – His mother arrived. It was such a pitiful sight, with Rizal kneeling before her and kissing her
hand, and begging her forgiveness. No words can describe the pain both had in their hearts so that it
was difficult to separate mother and son as they were locked in embrace with tears. A few moments,
Trinidad entered the cell to fetch her mother and it was to Trinidad that he whispered to her about
“something” in the alcohol cooking stove.

After his mother and sister left, Fathers Villaclara and Estanislao March entered the cell, with Father
Rosell.

6:00 P.M. – Don Silvino Lopez Tunon, Dean of the Manila Cathedral, with Father Villaclara, visited him.
Earlier, Fathers Balaguer and March were there but left prior to the arrival of Don Silvino.

8:00 P.M. – After taking his supper, Rizal informed Captain Dominguez that he forgave all his enemies
including the military judges who sentenced him to death.

9:30 P.M. – The fiscal of the Royal Audiencia in Manila came to visit him. His pleasant conversation with
Rizal gave him a good impression of the prisoner’s intelligence and noble character.

10:00 P.M – Father Balaguer visited Rizal for him to sign a retraction sent by Archbishop Bernardino
Nozaleda, who was perceived to be anti-Filipino, which was however rejected on the ground that it was
too long, but it was said that he came back with a shorter one. Rizal’s retraction of his Masonry and anti-
Catholic religious beliefs is till today a controversial issue, with the Catholic Rizalists alleging that Rizal did
recant, and the Rizalists Scholars, claiming that the signature to the recantation papers was a forgery.
Zaide (1994) nevertheless has to say this on the issue:

…The debate between the two groups of Rizalists is futile and irrelevant. Futile on the sense that
no amount of evidence can convince the Masonic Rizalists that Rizal did not retract… It is
likewise irrelevant because it does not matter at all to the greatness of Rizal. Whether he
retracted or not, the fact remains he was the greatest Filipino hero.

The “Retraction Document of Dr. Rizal”, which has been the object of controversy, runs as follows:

I declare that I am a Catholic, and in this religion, in which I was born and educated, I wish to
live and die.

I retract with all my heart anything in my words, writings, publications and conduct that has
been contrary to my character as a child of the Church. I believe and profess what it teaches. I
submit to what it demands. I abominate Masonry as an enemy of the Church and as a society
prohibited by it.

The Diocesan Prelate, as the superior ecclesiastical authority may make this manifestation public.
I declare this spontaneously, in order to repair any scandal which my acts may have caused and
so that God and man may pardon me.

Manila, December 29, 1896

(Witnesses)
Juan del Fresno, Chief of the Guard Detail
Eloy Moure, Adjutant of the Plaza

Whether Rizal recanted or not, it is irrelevant, it is true, for it does make him less a hero. His religious
belief from the present point of view is a personal matter, which did not affect his love for his country.

There is no record of what he did after the visit of Father Balaguer and the recantation papers, but for a
few hours, Rizal was by himself, probably finishing his last poem and masterpiece.

December 30, 1896

3:00 A.M. – The Fateful Day. Rizal heard mass, had confession and took Holy Communion.

5:30 A.M. – After taking his last breakfast, he wrote two letters, the first addressed to his family and the
second to his brother, who had suffered but withstood torture and physical punishment for him. There
was always that special kind of relationship between them till the end.

After he wrote his letters, Josephine Bracken, accompanied by Josefa (Rizal’s sister) arrived to bid him
farewell. He embraced her for the last time, while she was in tears and give her a gift: a religious book
entitled Imitation of Christ with a written inscription:

To my dear unhappy wife, Josephine

December 30, 1896

Jose Rizal

6:00 A.M. – He wrote another letter to his beloved parents, asking for forgiveness for the sorrows that he
had given them, and thanking them for their sacrifices to give him a good education.

6:30 A.M. – Rizal was prepared for the execution. A trumpet sounded in the stillness of the morning to
herald the event of the day. With four soldiers as advance guards, Rizal, a few meters behind walked
calmly towards “his rendezvous with death”, accompanied by Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade, his defense
counsel and two Jesuit priests, Fathers March and Villaclara, followed by more soldiers behind him.

This time although his arms were tied behind from elbow to elbow, the rope was quite loose and allowed
his arms more freedom of movement. He was dressed in black suit, with black derby hat, black shoes but
with white shirt and black tie.

Like any execution by musketry, muffled sound of drums rent the air, with the group marching solemnly
and slowly. Near the field a large group of spectators was out probably to see how a hero dies.

As they were walking to the field, Rizal looked at the sky and made a remark to one of the priests:

How beautiful it is today, Father. What morning could be more serene! How clear is Corregidor
and the mountains of Cavite! On mornings like this, I used to take a walk with my sweetheart.

While passing in front of Ateneo, he asked one of the fathers if the college towers were that of Ateneo’s,
which was affirmed by one of the priests.
In the Bagumbayan field, now the Luneta, the group stopped and he walked slowly to where he was told
to stand – on a grassy lawn between two lamp posts, overseeing the shores of the beautiful Manila Bay.

He took time to bid farewell to his companions, and firmly shook their hands. One of the priests blessed
him and offered a crucifix for him to kiss, which he did.

He then requested the commander of the firing squad to shoot him facing the firing squad, which was
refused, with the commander telling him of the orders that he had to follow.

He did as ordered reluctantly and turned his back and faced the sea, even as a Spanish military doctor,
Dr. Felipe Ruiz Castillo asked his permission to feel his pulse. Nothing could be more extraordinary that
for a man facing the firing squad who will snuff out his life, as having a normal pulse. Rizal, man and
martyr had no fear to die; to die for his country; it was a rare opportunity and he would want it in no
other way.

When the command “fire” was heard, Rizal made a supreme effort to face the firing squad, and his
bullet-riddled body instead turned to the right with his face facing the morning sun. It was exactly 7:03
A.M., December 30th, 1896 when Rizal died, a martyr’s death, at the prime of his life, 35 years of age,
five months and eleven days.

No fitting description could be of his death as that which he wrote in his farewell poem, particularly, the
third stanza, which says:

I die just when I see the dawn break,

No greater sound could have been exploded and heard all over the country, than that shot that was fired
on that fateful morning in Bagumbayan field, and no greater thunderous fall than that of the Spanish
empire. While the Spaniards rejoiced and danced over the death of Rizal, little did they realize that their
days of power and oppression were numbered, for the Filipinos took a united stand with the Philippine
Revolution on their newly aroused nationalism born by the powerful catalyst of Rizal’s mighty pen and of
his heroic death. As it has been said “the pen is mightier than the sword” for it can destroy mountains of
antipathy and build boulders of unity. The impossible was now made possible.

No one can read or follow the life of Rizal without a feeling of pain, sorrow, tragedy and loss. His was a
life of never-ending tragedies; in spite his good intentions. But virtue has its own reward – that of being
worshipped, idolized and looked up as a national hero.
THE WOMEN HE LOVED BEFORE JOSEPHINE