Rizal The Martyr

Last hours of Jose Rizal 

December 29, 6am 

·        Captain Rafael Dominguez read the verdict of Rizal: “To be shot the next day at 7:00AM at Luneta de Bagumbayan”. 

December 29, 7:00 AM 

·        In a chapel cell filled with Catholic religious figures, Rizal was transferred. The Jesuit priests Miguel Saderra and Luis Viza was convincing Rizal to go back to the Catholicfaith.

December 29, 7:15 AM 

·        Fr. Viza, reach in his pocket and shows Rizal the Sacred Heart statuette he carvedwhen he was just an Ateneo student.

December 29, 8:00 AM Fr. 

·        Viza along with Fr. Antonio Rosell joined Rizal for breakfast. Lt. Luis Taviel deAndrade joins them as well.

December 29, 9:00 AM 

·        “Rizal would lose his head for writing the Noli Me Tangere” said Fr. Federico whenhe arrived. Rizal replied, “Father you are indeed a prophet”

December 29, 10:00 AM 

·        Santiago Mataix of El Heraldo de Madrid enters the cell for an interviewwithRizal, along with Fathers Jose Vilaclara and Estanislao March.

December 29, 12-3:00 PM 

·        When Rizal was alone in his cell. He had lunch and wrote his last poemcontaining14stanzas, written in a very small piece of paper to fit in the alcohol stove. This last poem was later known as Mi Ultimo Adios (“My Last Farewell”).

December 29, 3:00 PM 

·        Rizal signed what looks like a document retracting his anti-Catholic works andmembership in masonry, according to the guard of Rizal’s cell.

December 29, 4:00 PM 

·        Rizal was visited by his mother, Teodora Alonso. Then followed by his sister, Trinidad, to pick up her mother. Rizal whispered to his sister “There is something inside.”pointing out to the alcohol stove.

December 29, 6 PM 

·        The Dean of the Manila Cathedral, Don Silvino Lopez Tunon, visited Rizal. Father March left the scene to leave Father Vilaclara with the two.

December 29, 8:00 PM 

·        During Rizal’s last supper, he told Captain Dominguez that he forgave those whocondemned of him.

December 29, 9:30 PM 

·        Rizal offered fiscal of the Royal Audiencia of Manila, Don Gaspar Castaño, the best chair in the cell and exchanged views about their professors.

December 30, 5:30 AM 

·        Rizal washes up, took his last meal, and writes a letter to his parents.

December 30, 6:00 AM 

·        Josephine Bracken, teary-eyed, and Josefa Rizal came to the scene

·        The same hour, Rizal wrote to his father, Francisco Mercado, “My beloved Father, Pardon me for the pain with which I repay you for sorrows and sacrifices for myeducation. I did not want nor did I prefer it. Goodbye, Father, goodbye…Jose.” 

·        He wrote to his mother, “To my dear Mother, Sra. Dna Teodora Alonso 6 o’clockinthe morning, December 30, 1896. Jose Rizal.”

December 30, 6:30 AM 

·        A march from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan began. Four soldiers holding bayonet rifles walk alongside with Rizal, Taviel de Andrade, Fathers Vilaclara and March.

December 30, 7:00 AM 

·        The pulse of Rizal was checked upon his arrival at Luneta de Bagumbayan. It was normal. 

·        “Preparen.” “Apunten.” Rizal shouted, “Consummatum est.” (It is done).

December 30, 7:03 AM 

·        “Fuego!” the captain shouts and guns roar from the shot of eight Filipino (indio) soldiers. Rizal, not facing the firing squad, forces himself to turn as he falls downtheground facing the sky.