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Chapter 5 Rizals Death

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23 views4 pages

Chapter 5 Rizals Death

Uploaded by

Jeffree Diaz
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 5: Jose Rizal's Death

After learning the unjust decision of the court martial, Jose spent the next twenty fours of his
remaining life seeing and speaking to his friends, family and Josephine Bracken whom he tied the knot
with canonically on December 30, 1896 officiated by Fr. Balaguer. After the reading of the death penalty,
Jose opted to spent quiet moments in the prison chapel. He turned into writing when he was left alone
in his cell. He penned a letter to his brother Paciano, another one to his best friend Dr. Ferdinand
Blumentritt, and another letter addressed to his
father and mother. It was also assumed that he
signed a document abjuring Masonry (which some
scholars doubted).

It is commonly believed that on December


29, 1896, Jose composed his last poem, Mi Ultimo
Adios (My Last Farewell). He was able to thrust it
inside an alcoh0I cooking stove which he gave to his
sister Trinidad to whom, he divulged 'There is
something in it.' Jose's last poem, composed without
a title and unsigned was translated in English by
Charles E. Derbyshire, which runs below:

My Last Farewell

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 light,


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,
'Tis ever the same to serve our home and country's need.

I die just when I see the down break,


Through the gloom of riight, 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 walking 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.

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 someday 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.

Let the moon beam over me soft and serene,


Let the dawn shed over me its radiant flashes
Let the wind with the sad lament over me keen;
And if on my cross a bird should be seen,
Let it trill its hymn of peace of 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 O 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 widow and orphans, for captives by torture tried;
And then for thyself that redemption thou mayst gain.

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 bear a sad hymn resound,
'Tis I, O my country, raising a song unto thee.

When even my grave is remembered no more,


Unmark' d by never a cross or a stone;
Let the plow sweep through it, the spade‚’ tum it o'er
That my ashes may carpet thy 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 and faith that I keep.

My Fatherland ador'd that my sadness to my sorrow lends,


Beloved Filipinas, hear now my last good-bye!
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!

On December 30, 1896, approximately at six thirty in the morning. Jose's walk towards his death
commenced signaled by a trumpet sound at Fort Santiago. The death march was delineated by Zaide
and Zaide (2014) as follows:

The advance guard of four soldiers with bayoneted rifles moved. A few meters behind,
Rizal walked calmly, with his defense counsel (Lt Luis Taviel de Andrade) on one side and two
Jesuit priests (Fathers March and Vilaclara) on the other. More wellarmed soldiers marched
behind him.

Rizal was dressed elegantly in a black suit, black derby hat, black shoes, white shirt and a
black tie. His arms were tied behind from elbow to elbow, but the rope was quite loose to give
his arms freedom of movement.

To the muffled sounds of the drums, the cavalcade somnolently marched slowly. There
was a handful of spectators lining the street from Fort
Santiago to the Plaza de! Palacio in front of the Manila
Cathedral. Everybody seemed to be out at Bagumbayan
where a vast crowd gathered to see how a martyr dies.

As Jose calmly made his way to Bagumbayan, he


remarked about the beauty and serenity of the morning,
uttered a few observations about Corregidor, the mountains or
Cavite and the Ateneo College. Upon reaching the place of
execution, Jose noticed the very large number of prying
persons and soldiers waiting for them. After final blessings were bestowed on him he said his adieu to
Fr. March, Fr. Villaclara and Lt. Taviel de Andrade. Jose's request that he be shot facing the firing squad
was denied because there was an order to shoot him in the back. The normal pulse of Jose, felt by Dr.
Felipe Ruiz Castillo, a Spanish military doctor, proved that he did not fear death. Above the beating of
the drums that filled the air was the cold-blooded command "Fuego" (Fire) which ended Jose's life. He
fell to the ground three minutes past seven o'clock in the morning and was declared dead.
Expectedly, the passing away of Jose Rizal's was greeted with joy by his enemies. On the
contrary, those who love, respected and supported him were brokenhearted and painfully inflamed. For
them, he died a hero and martyr to Philippine freedom.

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