Rizal 3: Rizal Life

• Jose Rizal is known as a Filipino hero and the creator of old quotes that give lessons
• Jose Rizal: 'The youth is the hope of our future<|>He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination'
• José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born on June 19, 1861, in Calamba, Laguna Province, Philippines
• José Rizal studied medicine in Manila and was a brilliant student who learned numerous languages. He went to Spain to finish his medical degree in 1882. He died in Manila, Philippines, on December 30, 1896. He was a patriot, physician, and writer whose life and works inspired the Philippine independence movement
• Francisco Mercado, father of Jose Rizal, was born on May 11, 1818, in Biñan Laguna. He studied Latin and philosophy at Colegio de San Jose in Manila. He met his wife, Teodora Alonso Realonda, there. Francisco Mercado died on January 5, 1898
• Teodora Alonso was born on November 14, 1827, in Santa Cruz Manila. She married Francisco Mercado and together they prospered in Calamba. Teodora was known to be a hardworking, intelligent, business-minded woman. She died in 1913 in Manila
• Names of Jose Rizal's siblings

  • Paciano Rizal (1851-1930)
  • Olympia Rizal Ubaldo (1855)
  • Narcisa Rizal (1852-1939)
  • Lucia Rizal (1857-1919)
  • Maria Rizal (1859-1945)
  • Concepcion Rizal (1862-1865)
  • Josefa Rizal (1865-1945)
  • Trinidad Rizal (1868-1951)
  • Soledad Rizal (1870-1929)
• Rizal was baptized on June 22, 1861, at Calamba Church (St. John the Baptist Church) by Fr. Rufino Collantes. His ‘ninong’ was Fr. Pedro Casanas
• The parochial church of Calamba and the canonical books, including the book in which Rizal’s baptismal records were entered, were burned

  September 28, 1862
• The first memory of Rizal, in his infancy, was his happy days in the garden when he was 3 years old
• He was baptized by Fr. Rufino Collantes. His ‘ninong’ was Fr. Pedro Casanas


  JUNE 22, 1861
• By nightfall, Rizal’s Mother gathered all the children at the house to pray Angelus
• Rizal loved to go to church to take part in novenas and join religious processions
• Rizal was called Manong Jose by Hermanos and Hermanas Terceras
• Rizal used to visit and listen to Father Leanciano Lopez (Town Priest) for stimulating opinions on current events and sound philosophy of life
• At barely three years old, Rizal learned the alphabet from his mother in 1864
• In 1865, when he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eighth child in the Rizal family, died at the age of three. It was on this occasion that Rizal remembers having shed real tears for the first time
• At the age of five, Rizal began to make sketches with his pencil and to mold clay and wax objects
• Rizal's early education

  Instruction was rigid and strict, knowledge was forced into the minds of pupils by means of the tedious memory method aided by the teacher’s whip. Rizal was able to acquire the necessary instruction preparatory to college in Manila. His first teacher was his mother, Teodora Alonso Realonda, who taught him how to read and write at the age of 3. His first tutor was Maestro Celestino, and the second was Maestro Lucas Padua. Later, an old man named Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal’s father, became the boy’s tutor in Spanish and Latin until his death 5 months later
• Maestro Lucas Padua


  Later became an old man Leon Monroy, a former classmate of Rizal's father, who became the boy's tutor in Spanish and Latin
• Unfortunately, Leon Monroy died 5 months later
• After Monroy's death

  Rizal's parents decided to send Jose Rizal, their gifted son, to a private school in Biñan
• Rizal went to Ateneo Municipal in Manila on June 10, 1872, when he was 11 years old
• Rizal passed the Christian Doctrine, Arithmetic, and Reading exam at the college of San Juan de Letran
• Don Francisco, Rizal's father, preferred that Rizal study only at Ateneo
• Father Fernando initially didn't want to accept Rizal at Ateneo because he was late, looked sick, and small for his age
• Jose was the first to use the last name Rizal because the last name Mercado was suspected at that time
• Ateneo is run by the Jesuits, who were considered the best educators of Spain at that time
• Ateneo adopted the division of students into two groups: Roman Empire and Carthaginian Empire
• Ranks per group at Ateneo

  • Emperor, Tribune, Decurion, Centurion, Standard-bearer
• On March 23, 1877, Jose Rizal received his Bachelor of Arts Degree, graduating as one of nine students in his class declared "Sobresaliente" or outstanding
• Rizal became interested in reading romantic novels and non-fiction works
• Jose Rizal's first romance was with Segunda Katigbak in 1877
• Women in Rizal's life

  • Julia Celeste Smith, Segunda Katigbak, Jacinta Ibardo Laza, Leonor Valenzuela, Consuelo Ortiga y Rey, Seiko Usui, Gertrude Beckette, Nellie Boustead, Suzanne Jacoby, Josephine Bracken