• José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso

Realonda was born on June

19, 1861, in the town of
Calamba, Laguna.
• He was baptized JOSE RIZAL
MERCADO at the Catholic of Calamba
by the parish priest Rev. Rufino
Collantes with Rev. Pedro Casañas as
the sponsor.
• He was the seventh child in a family of
11 children (2 boys and 9 girls). Both his
parents were educated and belonged to
distinguished families.
• SATURNINA RIZAL (1850-1913)
Eldest child of the Rizal-Alonzo marriage. Married Manuel
Timoteo Hidalgo of Tanauan, Batangas.
• PACIANO RIZAL (1851-1930)
Only brother of Jose Rizal and the second child. Studied
at San Jose College in Manila; became a farmer and later
a general of the Philippine Revolution.
• NARCISA RIZAL (1852-1939)
The third child. married Antonio Lopez at Morong, Rizal; a
teacher and musician.
• OLYMPIA RIZAL (1855-1887)
The fourth child. Married Silvestre Ubaldo; died in 1887
from childbirth.
• LUCIA RIZAL (1857-1919)
The fifth child. Married MatrianoHerbosa.
• MARIA RIZAL (1859-1945)
The sixth child. Married Daniel Faustino Cruz of
Biñan, Laguna.
• JOSE RIZAL (1861-1896)
The second son and the seventh child. He was executed
by the Spaniards on December 30,1896.
• CONCEPCION RIZAL (1862-1865)
The eight child. Died at the age of three.
• JOSEFA RIZAL (1865-1945)
The ninth child. An epileptic, died a spinster.
• TRINIDAD RIZAL (1868-1951)
The tenth child. Died a spinster and the last of the family
to die.
• SOLEDAD RIZAL (1870-1929)
The youngest child married Pantaleon Quintero.
• Jose Rizal’s first teacher was his mother, who
had taught him how to read and pray and who
had encouraged him to write poetry.
Later, private tutors taught the young Rizal
Spanish and Latin, before he was sent to a
private school in Biñan.
• Rizal first studied under Justiniano Aquino
Cruz in Biñan, Laguna before he was sent
to Manila. As to his father's request, he took the
entrance examination inColegio de San Juan de
Letran and studied there for almost three
months. The Dominican friars asked him to
transfer to another school due to his radical and
bold questions.
• When he was 11 years old, Rizal entered the
Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He earned
excellent marks in subjects like
philosophy, physics, chemistry, and natural
history. At this school, he read novels; wrote
prize-winning poetry (and even a
melodrama—“Junto al Pasig”); and practiced
drawing, painting, and clay modeling, all of
which remained lifelong interests for him.
• Rizal eventually earned a land surveyor’s
and assessor’s degree from the Ateneo
Municipal while taking up Philosophy and
Letters at the University of Santo Tomas.
Upon learning that his mother was going
blind, Rizal opted to study ophthalmology at
the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
He, however, was not able to complete the
course because “he became politically
isolated by adversaries among the faculty
and clergy who demanded that he assimilate
to their system.”
• Without his parents' knowledge and
consent, but secretly supported by his
brother Paciano, he traveled alone
to Madrid, Spain in May 1882 and studied
medicine at the Universidad Central de
Madrid where he earned the
degree, Licentiate in Medicine. Also, he also
attended medical lectures at the University of
Paris and theUniversity of Heidelberg. In Berlin
he was inducted as a member of the Berlin
Ethnological Society and the Berlin
Anthropological Society under the patronage
of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow.
• Rizal, 11 years old, a student at the Ateneo
Municipal de Manila.
• José Rizal as a student at the University of Santo
Tomas.
• José was designed by nature to be an
artist. This he revealed before he was five
years of age, for without any assistance
from others he began to draw with his
pencil and to mould in wax or clay any
object he saw about him. Fortunately, his
mother, father, and uncles recognized this
unusual talent and gave him every
encouragement.
• A Group of Sketches by Rizal.
• There was a also a time when Rizal was able to
draw a bird flying nearby without lifting the pencil
he was using from the paper till the picture he
drew was finished. He can also draw a running
horse and a chasing dog.
• Jose Rizal also owned a pony and used it to have
long rides into the surrounding country which was
rich in scenery. He also took long walks together
with his big black dog named Usman. He also
loved to play with the doves in his neighborhood.
He learned about the myths and legends in
Laguna after sleeping through the nut in a little
straw hut used by Laguna farmers during the
harvest season. Rizal was also good in hand
tricks which he perfected to amaze the simple
folk and performed magic lantern exhibitions.
• The little boy spent also much of his time
in the church, which was conveniently
near, but when the mother suggested that this
might be an indication of religious
inclination, his prompt response was that
he liked to watch the people.
• Even in his childhood, Rizal already knew how
to respect the rights of others and requested
his elders to reason with him rather than get
mad at him for small offenses. He became a
welcome companion for adults even at his
young age since he respected their moods
and was never a hindrance to their activities.
• Three uncles who were brothers of his
mother also had much influence on the early
childhood of Jose Rizal. The youngest uncle
named Jose, took care of teaching regular
lessons to Rizal. His huge uncle Manuel
developed his physique until he had a body
of silk and steel and no longer a skinny and
sickly boy. The last uncle, Gregorio instilled
in the mind of Rizal that it was not easy to
obtain something until you put effort into it.
• The childhood of Jose Rizal can be
characterized by his desire to learn, even
frequenting the church nearby his home to
watch and observe people but not to
be religiously inclined. Jose Rizal was not a
physically blessed or strong child
however, he had a strong will guided and
taught by his mother, his first teacher. He
learned almost without the use of books. His
mother was the one who laid the foundation
of his great knowledge achieved in such a
short time. His brilliance was also the
character of the young Jose Rizal.