Royal Fort Santiago
25 December 1896
MR. LUIS TAVIEL DE ANDRADE
MY VERY DISTINGUISHED DEFENDER,
The judge has informed me this morning that my case will be taken up before the Plenary Court tomorrow. I have been waiting for you this morning to speak with you about an important matter but undoubtedly your pursuits did not permit you to come as the judge expected. If you have time to spare, I should like to speak with you before I appear before the Council. I would- appreciate it very much, this afternoon, this evening or morning.
Wishing you Merry Christmas, reiterate I am as ever your most attentive affectionate servant and client who kisses your hand,
JOSE RIZAL
01-921 [Family]
1896? Fort Santiago
From: Jose Rizal
To: Family
Rizal bids his family farewell — “It is better to die than to live suffering” — How he wishes to be buried.
* * *
To MY FAMILY,
I ask you for forgiveness for the pain I cause you, but someday I shall have to die and it is better that I die now in the plenitude of my conscience.
Dear Parents and brothers: Give thanks to God that I may preserve my tranquility before my death. I die resigned, hoping that with my death you will be left in peace. Ah! It is better to die than to live suffering. Console yourselves.
I enjoin you to forgive one another the little meannesses of life and try to live united in peace and good harmony. Treat your old parents as you would like to be treated by your children later. Love them very much in my memory.
Bury me in the ground. Place a stone and a cross over it. My name, the date of my birth and of my death. Nothing more. If later you wish to surround my grave with a fence, you can do it. No anniversaries. I prefer Paang Bundok.[1]
Have pity on poor Josephine.
01-922 [Family]
[1] This letter was among Rizal documents presented to the Republic of the Philippines by Spain through her ministers of foreign affairs, Martin Artajo on 26 February 1953. It has no date, but it must have been written at Fort Santiago shortly before he was led to his execution on Bagumbayan, Manila 1953, by the Philippine Government. Paang Bundok , literally means foot of a mountain, is the place in the north of Manila where the North Cemetery, a municipal cemetery, and the Chinese Cemetery are. Rizal was buried, not in a humble place in Paang Bundok , as he wished, but in the Cemetery of Paco. On 30 December 1912, the Commission on the Rizal Monument, created by virtue of Law No. 243, transferred his remains to the base of the monuments erected on the Luneta, very near to the where he was shot.