Life and Works

of

Dr. Jose P. Rizal

CHAPTER 25:

Martyrdom
at
Bagumbayan
01

 After being court-martialed, Rizal returned to

his cell in Fort Santiago to prepare his
rendezvous with destiny.
During his last 24 hours on earth from 6:00
A.M. of Dec. 29 to 6:00 A.M. of Dec. 30, 1896
he was busy meeting visitors which includes
his family and friends.
He was also able to write his last poem his
final contribution for the emancipation of the
Filipino people.

INTRODUCTION

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

02

Rizals Prison Cell

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

03

December 29, 1896

6:00 A.M. Captain Rafael Rodriguez read
Rizals death sentence he will be shot at the
back by firing squad at 7:00 A.M. in
Bagumbayan.
7:00 A.M. Rizal was moved to the prison
chapel where he spent his last moments. His
first visitors were Jesuit priests.
7:15 A.M. Rizal reminded Fr. Luis Viza the
statuette of the Sacred Heart of Jesus whom
he carved as a student in Ateneo.
Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

04

December 29, 1896

8:00 A.M. Rizal had a breakfast with Fr.
Antonio Rosell. After breakfast, his attorney,
Lt. Luis Taviel de Andrade came.
9:00 A.M. Fr. Frederico Faura arrived. Rizal
reminded the priest of his earlier prophecy
about Rizal.
10:00 A.M. More Jesuit priests had visited
him. After then, he was interviewed by
Santiago Mataix for the newspaper El Heraldo
de Madrid.
Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

05

December 29, 1896

12:00 3:30 P.M. Rizal was left alone in his
cell. He took his lunch and continued writing
his farewell poem which he hid in an alcohol
cooking stove. He also wrote his last letter to
Professor Blumentritt.
3:30 P.M. Father Vicente Balaguer returned
to his cell and discussed with Rizal his
retraction letter.

Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

06

December 29, 1896

4:00 P.M. Teodora Alonzo visited him. They
had a very emotional encounter. Rizal gave
the alcohol cooking stove to Trinidad which
contains his farewell poem. Several priests
have visited him afterwards.
6:00 P.M. Don Silvino Lopez, dean of the
Manila Cathedral visited him.
8:00 P.M. Rizal had his last supper. He told
Captain Dominguez that he forgave his
enemies including the military judges.
Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

07

Mi Ultimo Adios

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

08

December 29, 1896

9:30 P.M. Rizal was visited by Don Gaspar
Cestano, fiscal of the Royal Audience de
Manila.
10:00 P.M. The draft of the retraction letter
sent
by
the
anti-Filipino
Archbishop
Bernardino Nozaleda was given by Fr.
Balaguer to Rizal for his signature. He had
rejected it.

Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

09

 Upon Rizals death, his supposedly retraction

letter became of one of the most controversial
documents in our history.
This retraction letter allegedly contains his
renunciation of the Masonry and his anti-Catholic
religious ideas.
Depending on whose side you are on, some
Rizalists claims that it is fake while some believe
it to be genuine.
There had been some evidences but so far these
had only heated up the debate between the two
factions.

Retraction Letter

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

10

December 30, 1896

3:00 A.M. Rizal heard Mass, confessed his
sins and took Holy Communion.
5:30 A.M. He took his last breakfast. After
which he wrote his last letters for his family
and his brother, Paciano.

Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

11

I am about to die,
Now
and it is to you I
dedicate my last lines,
to tell you how sad I am
to leave you alone in
life, burdened with the
weight of the family
and our old parents.
Letter to Paciano

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

12

December 30, 1896

5:30 A.M. Josephine Bracken arrived
together with Rizals sister, Josefa, with tears
in her eyes, bade him farewell. Rizal
embraced him for the last time, and before
she left, Rizal gave her a last gift a religious
book, Imitation of Christ by Father Thomas
Kempis.

Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

13

December 30, 1896

6:00 A.M. As the soldiers were

getting ready for the death march to
Bagumbayan, Rizal wrote his last
letter to his beloved parents.

Last Hours of Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

14

beloved
Father,
My
pardon me for the pain
with which I repay you,
for
sorrows
and
sacrifices
for
my
education. I did not
want it nor did I prefer
it.
Goodbye
Father,
goodbye.

Letter to his Father

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

15

To
my
very
dear
Mother,
Sra.
Dona
Teodora
Alonso
6
ooclock in the morning,
December 30, 1896.

Letter to his Mother

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

16

 At about 6:30 A.M., a trumpet sounded at Fort

Santiago, a signal to begin the death march to
Bagumbayan.
Rizal walked calmly with his defense counsel
and two Jesuit priests at his sides.
He was dressed elegantly in a black suit,
black derby hat, black shoes, white shirt and
black tie. His arms were tied behind from
elbow to elbow.
There a lot of spectators lining the street from
Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan.
Death March to Bagumbayan

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

17

 As he was going through the narrow Postigo

Gate, Rizal looked at the sky and said 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 he was passing in front of the Ateneo,
he saw the college towers above the walls. He
asked: Is that the Ateneo, Father? Yes,
replied the priest.
Death March to Bagumbayan

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

18

Death March to Bagumbayan

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

19

 Rizal bade farewell to Fathers March and

Vilaclara and to his defender, Lt. Luis Taviel de
Andrade. Although his arms were tied, he had
firmly clasped their hands in parting.
One of the priests blessed him and offered
him a crucifix to kiss.
He requested the commander of the firing
squad that he be shot facing them. His
request was denied for the captain had implicit
orders to shoot him at his back.

Martyrdom of a Hero

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

20

 A Spanish military physician, Dr. Felipe Ruiz

Castillo, asked his permission to feel his pulse.
He was amazed to find it normal, showing that
Jose Rizal was not afraid to die.
The death ruffles of the drums filled the air. Above
the drum beats, the sharp command Fire was
heard, and the guns of the firing squad barked.
Rizal, with supreme effort, turned his bulletriddled body to the right, and fell on the ground
dead with face upward facing the morning sun.
It was exactly 7:03 in the morning aged 35
years, 5 moths and 11 days.

Martyrdom of a Hero

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

21

Martyrdom of a Hero

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

22

I die just when I see the

dawn break, through the
gloom of night, to herald
the day; And if color is
lacking my blood thou shalt
take, pourd out at need for
thy sake, to dye with its
crimson the waking ray.

Martyrdom of a Hero

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

23

 It is interesting to not that 14 years before his

execution, Rizal predicted that he would die
on December 30th. He was then a medical
student in Madrid, Spain.

Martyrdom of a Hero

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

24

To live is to be among
men, and to be among
men is to struggle, a
struggle not only with
them but with oneself;
with their passions, but
also with one's own.

Letter to his family, Dapitan (c. 1884)

Jose Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

25

There can be
no tyrants
where there
are no slaves.

Taken from El Filibusterismo

Jose Rizal

Martyrdom at Bagumbayan

26

My Last Farewell
by Jose Rizal
Farewell, dear Fatherland, clime of the sun caress'd
Pearl of the Orient seas, our Eden lost!,
Gladly now I go to give thee this faded life's best,
And were it brighter, fresher, or more blest
Still would I give it thee, nor count the cost.
On the field of battle, 'mid the frenzy of fight,
Others have given their lives, without doubt or heed;
The place matters not-cypress or laurel or lily white,
Scaffold or open plain, combat or martyrdom's plight,
T is ever the same, to serve our home and country's
need.
MI ULTIMO ADIOS

TRANSLATED BY CHARLES DERBYSHIRE

I die just when I see the dawn break,

Through the gloom of night, to herald the day;
And if color is lacking my blood thou shalt take,
Pour'd out at need for thy dear sake
To dye with its crimson the waking ray.
My dreams, when life first opened to me,
My dreams, when the hopes of youth beat high,
Were to see thy lov'd face, O gem of the Orient
sea
From gloom and grief, from care and sorrow free;
No blush on thy brow, no tear in thine eye.

MI ULTIMO ADIOS

TRANSLATED BY CHARLES DERBYSHIRE

Dream of my life, my living and burning desire,

All hail ! cries the soul that is now to take flight;
All hail ! And sweet it is for thee to expire ;
To die for thy sake, that thou mayst aspire;
And sleep in thy bosom eternity's long night.
If over my grave some day thou seest grow,
In the grassy sod, a humble flower,
Draw it to thy lips and kiss my soul so,
While I may feel on my brow in the cold tomb below
The touch of thy tenderness, thy breath's warm
power.

MI ULTIMO ADIOS

TRANSLATED BY CHARLES DERBYSHIRE

Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,

Let the dawn shed over me its radiant flashes,
Let the wind with sad lament over me keen ;
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it trill there its hymn of peace to my ashes.
Let the sun draw the vapors up to the sky,
And heavenward in purity bear my tardy protest
Let some kind soul o 'er my untimely fate sigh,
And in the still evening a prayer be lifted on high
From thee, 0 my country, that in God I may rest.
Pray for all those that hapless have died,
For all who have suffered the unmeasur'd pain;
For our mothers that bitterly their woes have cried,
For widows and orphans, for captives by torture tried
And then for thyself that redemption thou mayst gain.
MI ULTIMO ADIOS

TRANSLATED BY CHARLES DERBYSHIRE

And when the dark night wraps the graveyard around

With only the dead in their vigil to see
Break not my repose or the mystery profound
And perchance thou mayst hear a sad hymn resound
'T is I, O my country, raising a song unto thee.
And even my grave is remembered no more
Unmark'd by never a cross nor a stone
Let the plow sweep through it, the spade turn it o'er
That my ashes may carpet earthly floor,
Before into nothingness at last they are blown.
Then will oblivion bring to me no care
As over thy vales and plains I sweep;
Throbbing and cleansed in thy space and air
With color and light, with song and lament I fare,
Ever repeating the faith that I keep.

My Fatherland ador'd, that sadness to my sorrow

lends
Beloved Filipinas, hear now my last good-by!
I give thee all: parents and kindred and friends
For I go where no slave before the oppressor
bends,
Where faith can never kill, and God reigns e'er on
high!
Farewell to you all, from my soul torn away,
Friends of my childhood in the home dispossessed
!
Give thanks that I rest from the wearisome day !
Farewell to thee, too, sweet friend that lightened
my way;
Beloved creatures all, farewell! In death there is
rest
!
TRANSLATED BY CHARLES DERBYSHIRE
MI ULTIMO ADIOS

JOSE PROTASIO RIZAL MERCADO Y ALONSO REALONDA

Philippines National Hero