 6 October 1896

o On his 4th day of being held in his cabin at the MV Isla de Panay docked at Barcelona, Spain
on his way to Cuba, Rizal was awakened to be brought to Montjuich Prison in Barcelona,
Spain. He had an interview with General Eulogio Despujol.  Aboard the Colon, Rizal left
Barcelona for Manila.
 3 November: 
Rizal was brought to Fort Santiago, where other patriots, including his brother Paciano, were being
tortured to implicate him. Paciano refused to sign anything despite being his body broken and his left
hand crushed.
 20 November:
Preliminary investigation began with Rizal appearing before Judge Advocate Colonel Francisco
Olive.  The investigation lasted five days.
 26 November:
The records of the case were handed over to Governor General Ramon Blanco who then appointed
Captain Rafael Dominguez as special Judge Advocate.
 8 December: 
From a list submitted to him by the authorities, he chose the brother of his friend, Lt. Luis Taviel de
Andrade to become his trial lawyer.  He was only made to choose among army officers and not a
civilian lawyer.
 11 December: 
In his prison cell, Rizal was read the charges against him:  “principal organizer and the living soul of
the Filipino insurrection, the founder of societies, periodicals and books dedicated to fomenting and
propagating the ideas of rebellion.”
 13 December: 
Ramon Blanco was replaced by Camilo de Polavieja, a more ruthless character, as Governor General
of the Philippines.  Dominguez submitted the papers of the Rizal case to Malacañan Palace.
 15 December: 
Rizal issued his manifesto to certain Filipinos calling to end the “absurd” rebellion and to fight for
liberties with education as a prerequisite.  The authorities supressed the manifesto.
 25 December: 
Rizal’s saddest Christmas, away from family and friends.
 26 December
Trial of Rizal began at the Cuartel de España.  On the same day, the court-martial secretly and
unanimously voted for a guilty verdict with the penalty of death before a firing squad.
 28 December
Polavieja signs the death verdict.
 29 December, 6:00 AM: 
 Rizal was read his verdict by Captain Rafael Dominguez: To be shot the next day at 7:00 AM at the
Luneta de Bagumbayan (Rizal Park).
>7:00 AM: 
Rizal was transferred to the chapel cell adorned by religious images to convince him to go back to the
Catholic fold.  His first visitors were Jesuit priests Fathers Miguel Saderra Mata and Luis Viza.
>7:15 AM:  After Fr. Saderra left, Rizal asked Fr. Viza for the Sacred Heart statuette which he carved
when he was an Ateneo student.  From his pocket the statuette appears.
 29 December, 8:00 AM: 
Fr. Viza was relieved by Fr. Antonio Rosell who joined Rizal for breakfast.  Lt. Luis Taviel de
Andrade joins them.
 29 December, 9:00 AM:
  Fr. Federico Faura, who once said that Rizal would lose his head for writing the  Noli Me Tangere,
arrived.  Rizal told him, “Father you are indeed a prophet.”
> 10:00 AM:
Fathers José Vilaclara and Estanislao March visited Rizal, followed by a Spanish journalist, Santiago
Mataix of El Heraldo de Madrid, for an interview.
>12:00-3:30 PM:  Rizal’s time alone in his cell. He had lunch, wrote letters and probably wrote his
last poem of 14 stanzas and hid it inside his alcohol stove. The untitled poem was later known as Mi Ultimo
Adios (My Last Farewell), he already praised the revolutionaries in the battlefield for giving their lives
"without doubt, without gloom."
>4:00 PM:  Visit of Rizal’s mother, Teodora Alonso. Then Rizal’s sister Trinidad entered to get her
mother and Rizal whispered to her in English that there was something inside the alcohol stove, While leaving
for their carriages, an official handed over the alcohol stove to Narcisa. 29 December, 6:00 PM: Rizal was
visited by the Dean of the Manila Cathedral, Don Silvino Lopez Tuñon. Father March left Father Vilaclara to
be with the two.
>8:00 PM:  Rizal’s last supper where he informed Captain Dominguez that he already forgave those who
condemned him.
> 9:30 PM: 
Rizal was visited by the fiscal of the Royal Audiencia of Manila, Don Gaspar Cestaño with whom Rizal
offered the best chair of the cell.
 30 December
5:30 AM:  Rizal took his last meal.  According to stories told to Narcisa by Lt. Luis Taviel de
Andrade, Rizal threw some eggs in the corner of a cell for the “poor rats,” “Let them have their fiesta
too.”  Rizal also wrote to his family and to his brother.
> 5:00 AM:  Teary-eyed Josephine Bracken and Josefa Rizal came. 
 >6:00 AM: 
Rizal wrote his father, Francisco Mercado and to his mother.
>6:30 AM: 
Death march from Fort Santiago to Bagumbayan begins.  4 soldiers with bayoneted rifles lead the
procession followed by Rizal, Taviel de Andrade, Fathers Vilaclara and March and other soldiers. 
They passed by the Intramuros plaza, then turned right to the Postigo gate then left at Malecon, the
bayside road now known as Bonifacio Drive.
>7:00 AM: 
Rizal, after arriving on the execution site at the Luneta de Bagumbayan, was checked with his pulse
by Dr. Felipe Ruiz Castillo.  It was perfectly normal.  Rizal once wrote, “I wish to show those who
deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and our convictions.”
7:03 AM: 
With the captain shouting “Fuego!”  Shouts rang out from the guns of eight indio soldiers.  Rizal,
being a convicted criminal was not facing the firing squad.  As he was hit, he resists and turns himself
to face his executors. He falls down, and dies facing the sky.“Viva España!  Muerte a los traidores!”
 30 December 1896, afternoon:  Narcisa, after a long search, discovered where her brother’s body was
secretly buried, at the old unused Paco Cemetery. 
 17 August 1898:  Four days after the Mock Battle of Manila when the Americans took over the city,
the remains of Rizal where exhumed. 
 29 December 1912:  From Estraude Street in Binondo, Manila, the urn was transferred in a procession
headed by the masons and the Knights of Rizal to the marble hall of the Ayuntamiento de Manila,
where it stayed overnight with the Knights on guard.
 30 December 1912, morning:  In a solemn procession, the urn began its last journey to Rizal’s final
resting place the base of the soon-to-rise national monument to José Rizal.
 30 December 1913:  The Rizal National Monument at the Luneta was inaugurated.  Its original design
name was “Motto Stella” (Guiding Star) and was made by Swiss sculptor Dr. Richard Kissling who
earlier also made the National Monument to William Tell, the National Hero of Switzerland.
 30 December 2012:  The transfer of the remains of Rizal from Binondo to the site of the Rizal
Monument was recreated one hundred years later by the Order of the Knights of Rizal and the
National Historical Commission of the Philippines in commemoration of Rizal’s 116 th Martyrdom
Anniversary.