Did Dr.

Jose Rizal
retracted on his last
hours at Fort
Santiago?
 Dr. Jose Rizal
• A leader of the reformist
movement in Spain.
• He was arrested, tried and
sentenced to death by
Spanish court-martial after
being implicated as a leader
of the Philippine Revolution.
• The night before his death
by firing squad at the
Bagumbayan on December
30, 1896
• Accounts exists that
Rizal allegedly retracted
his Masonic ideals and
his writings and
reconverted to
Catholicism following
several hours of
persuasion by Jesuit
priests.
• There was considerable
doubt to this allegation
by Rizal’s family and
friends until 1935, the
supposed retraction
document with Rizal’s
signature was found.
 TWO (2)
SPANISH
ACCOUNTS
ON RIZAL’S
RETRACTION
Fr. Vicente
Balaguer
 Fr. Vicente Balaguer
• One of the Jesuit priests who visited Rizal
during his last hours in Fort Santiago and
claimed that he managed to persuade Rizal to
denounce Masonry and return to the Catholic
fold.

• In an affidavit executed in 1917 when he had

returned to Spain, Balaguer also claimed that
he was the one who solemnized the marriage
of Josephine Bracken and Rizal hours before
the his execution.
Excerpt from Fr. Balaguer’s acount
“It was already night when I arrived at the Fort. I
found Dr. Rizal impatient. He asked for the
formula of the Prelate. This came at last, at
about ten o’clock; upon knowing it, the convict
asked me for it insistently. Without letting me
read it first, he called and asked me to read it to
him.”
Excerpt from Fr. Balaguer’s acount
“Both of us sat a desk, where there was
stationery and I began to read it. Upon hearing
the first paragraph, he told me: “Father, do not
proceed. That style is different from mine. I
cannot sign that, because it should be
understood that I am writing it myself.”
Excerpt from Fr. Balaguer’s acount
“He finished the writing, and thus it remained. It
was half past eleven; it was dated December the
twenty-ninth….
This declaration or retraction was signed
together with Dr. Rizal by Señor Fresno, Chief of
the Picket, and Señor Moure, Adjutant of the
Plaza…”
Excerpt from Fr. Balaguer’s acount
“After all these acts,… he knelt down of his own
accord before the altar of the Virgin, placed in
the chapel cell. In the presence of the Fathers, of
the Judge Advocate, of the Chief of the Picket, of
the Adjutant of the Plaza, of three artillery
officers, Rizal asked me for his retraction and
profession of faith. He proceeded to read it with
pause and devotion…”
 Fr. Pio Pi
• He was a Jesuit Superior in the Philippines
during the time when Rizal was executed.
In 1917, he issued an affidavit recounting his
involvement in the alleged retraction of Rizal.
• He was only involved in securing the
retraction document from the Archbishop of
Manila Bernardino Nozaleda, and writing a
shorter retraction document as well which
was the one Rizal allegedly copied.
 Excerpt from Fr. Pi’s account
“The one which I made was shorter although
conclusive, and this pleased him. Nevertheless,
to make it appear more of his own and
spontaneous, he wished to introduced some
modifications. He wrote it entirely in his own
hand and signed it with a steady hand…
Beneath Rizal’s signature, the Chief of the
Picket, Juan del Fresno, and the Adjutant of
the Plaza, Eloy Moure, also signed as witness.”
 Excerpt from Fr. Pi’s account
“Not satisfied with signing so explicit an
adjuration, Rizal himself, without pressure
from anyone, took into his hands his own
document and knelt down before the altar of
the chapel. Aloud and slowly, and even with a
certain solemnity, he read his own
retraction…”
 Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia
• An eyewitness account surfaced in 2016,
through the research of Prof. Rene R.
Escalante.
• Written by Federico Moreno, a Spanish spy.
• Rizal had long conversation with Father
March and Father Vilaclara, after that he
asked them to leave to write and it took him
long do it.
 Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia
• At 3 in the afternoon, Father March entered
the chapel and Rizal handed him what he
had written.
• Immediately, the chief of the firing squad,
Señor del Fresno and the Assistant of the
Plaza, Señor Maure were informed.
• They entered the death row and together
with Rizal signed the document that he had
written.
 Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia
• At 5 am of the 30th, Josephine Bracken
arrived at the prison… dressed in mourning.
Only the former entered the chapel,
followed by a military chaplain whose name
I cannot ascertain.
• Donning his formal clothes and aided by a
soldier of the artillery, the nuptials of Rizal
and the woman who had been his lover
were performed at the point of death. After
embracing him she left, flooded with tears.
 Testimony of Cuerpo de Vigilancia
(Analysis)
• This corroborates the existence of the
retraction document, giving its credence
• HOWEVER, NOWHERE IN THE ACCOUNT
WAS FR. BALAGUER MENTIONED.
Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis

A lawyer, writer, educator

and politician.

He was the author of

Biografia de Rizal which
won a literary contest in
1938.
Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
“All the declarations
therein cited are those of
ecclesiastics and their
friends, and it is to be
supposed that all of the
latter would not
contradict the version
given by the former.”
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

1. The document of retraction was kept secret so

that no one except the authorities was able to
see it at that time.
• Only copies of it were published in
newspapers, but with the exemption of one
person, nobody saw the original.
• This original was found 30 years later.
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

2. When Rizal’s family asked for the original of

that said document or a copy of it as well as a
copy of the certificate of canonical marriage
with Josephine Bracken, both petitions were
denied.
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

3. Rizal’s burial was kept secret, the cadaver

having been delivered to the members of a
Catholic association friendly to the friars
instead of being delivered to the family,
who had claimed it.
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

4. In spite of what Rizal meant to the Filipinos

and of what his conversion meant, no masses
were said for his soul or funeral held by the
Catholics.
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

5. Notwithstanding (the claim) that Rizal was

reconciled with the Church, he was not
buried in the Catholic cemetery of Paco but
in the ground without any cross or stone to
mark his grave.
• Only the diligence of the family was able
to identify the spot where he was buried.
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

6. The entry in the book burials of the interment of

Rizal’s body is not made on the page with those
buried on December 30, 1896, where there were
only 6 entries, but on a special page wherein appear
those buried by special orders of authorities.
• Thus, Rizal figures on a page between a man
who burned to death and who could not be
identified and another who died by suicide.
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
Acts tend to demonstrate that RIZAL DID NOT
RECONCILE WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:

7. There was no moral motive for conversion. The

extraordinary or abnormal acts of a person are
always to some reason or rational motive.
“What was the motive that could have induced him
to adjure masonry and reconcile himself to the rites
of the religion which he had fought? Did he not
realize that to do so was to be a renegade to his
own history?”
 Rafael Palma’s Critical Analysis
In short, Rizal’s conversion was a pious fraud to
make the people believe that, that extraordinary
man broke down and succumbed before the Church
which he had fought.

The Archbishop was interested in his conversion fro

political motives and the Jesuits lent themselves as
his instrument.
 Austin Coates’s Critical Analysis
He had an interest in Rizal’s life when he was an
Assistant Colonial secretary and Magistrate in Hong
Kong in 1950.
He wrote Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr –
the first Rizal biography written by a European since
Vida y Escritos del Dr. Jose Rizal by Wenceslao
Retana in 1907.