The Martyrdom of Rizal · after Botong Francisco

Fort Santiago and the final farewell

Imprisoned at Fort Santiago, Rizal wrote the poem later known as Mi Último Adiós. He was executed at Bagumbayan on December 30, 1896.

Arrested on his way to serve as a volunteer doctor in Cuba, he was court-martialed on December 26. He hid the poem in an alcohol stove that he gave to his family on the eve of his execution.

He left Dapitan at the end of July 1896 and was waiting aboard a cruiser in Manila Bay when the revolution broke out. Arrested at sea after his steamer left Port Said, he was held in Barcelona’s Montjuich Castle and shipped back to Fort Santiago. At trial he could choose a defender only from a list of army officers; Lieutenant Luis Taviel de Andrade risked his standing to defend him.

On December 30 he walked under guard from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan. A Spanish army doctor found his pulse steady. Refused permission to face the firing squad, he turned as the volley struck and fell face upward. Buried secretly at Paco, his remains were laid beneath the Rizal Monument in 1912. December 30 is observed as Rizal Day.

Sources for the historical context

• Intramuros Administration · Final days
• Rizal’s Own Story of His Life (Craig), chronology, 1896
• Austin Craig, Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal (1913), trial and execution
• NHCP marker · José Rizal, Paco Cemetery
• Russell & Rodriguez · The Hero of the Filipinos