Jos Rizal

Jos Rizal (1861-96), Filipino physician, novelist,

and nationalist martyr. The son of a wealthy Filipino
planter, Rizal was born in Calamba, in Laguna Province.
He studied medicine in Madrid and Paris and later in
Germany, where he published his novel The Lost Eden
(1886; trans. 1961), attacking the evils of Spanish rule in
the Philippines. This and a second novel, The Subversive
Jos Rizal
An advocate of civil equality for
Filipinos, political activist Jos
Rizal published a book critical of
Spanish colonial rule in the
Philippines in 1886, while he was
studying in Europe. When he
returned to the Philippines, Rizal
was exiled to Mindanao. In 1896
Rizal was accused of sedition and
executed. He has become a
national martyr of the Philippines.

(1891; trans. 1962), won him wide recognition and

helped spark a reform movement in the Philippines.
Rizal was critical of the power exercised by Roman
Catholic religious orders in his country and demanded
political rights and equality for Filipinos, but he stopped
short of advocating independence. After practicing
medicine for a time in Hong Kong, he returned to Manila
in 1892. The authorities there exiled him to the island of

Mindanao. When a Filipino revolt broke out in 1896, Rizal was accused of having
inspired it. Convicted of sedition by a military court, he was executed in Manila. He
is honored as a national hero in the Philippines.