RIZAL MODULE 5-Midterm

RIZAL’S LIFE:
HIS INTELLECTUAL, ETHICAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL GROWTH
LORD IVAN A. PANCHO

09266462905 | FB: Vanito Swabe
Email: [email protected]
1
MODULE 5
THE GOMBURZA EXECUTION AND RIZAL’S AWAKENING
Most Essential Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this module, the learners are expected to:
 Discuss the women of Rizal and their personal influences
 Appreciate the act of personal sacrifices for a greater cause
 Exhibit selflessness and self-love properly in diverse situations
Introduction
On January 20, 1872, two hundred Filipinos employed at the Cavite arsenal staged a revolt
against the Spanish government’s voiding of their exemption from the payment of tributes. The Cavite
Mutiny led to the persecution of prominent Filipinos; secular priests Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and
Jacinto Zamora—who would then be collectively named GomBurZa—were tagged as the masterminds
of the uprising. The priests were charged with treason and sedition by the Spanish military tribunal—a
ruling believed to be part of a conspiracy to stifle the growing popularity of Filipino secular priests and
the threat they posed to the Spanish clergy. The GomBurZa were publicly executed, by garrote, on the
early morning of February 17, 1872 at Bagumbayan.
The Archbishop of Manila refused to defrock them, and ordered the bells of every church to toll in
honor of their deaths; the Sword, in this instance, denied the moral justification of the Cross. The
martyrdom of the three secular priests would resonate among Filipinos; grief and outrage over their
execution would make way for the first stirrings of the Filipino revolution, thus making the first secular
martyrs of a nascent national identity. Jose Rizal would dedicate his second novel, El Filibusterismo, to
the memory of GomBurZa, to what they stood for, and to the symbolic weight their deaths would
henceforth hold:
The Government, by enshrouding your trial in mystery and pardoning your co-accused,
has suggested that some mistake was committed when your fate was decided; and the whole
of the Philippines, in paying homage to your memory and calling you martyrs, totally rejects
your guilt. The Church, by refusing to degrade you, has put in doubt the crime charged against
you.
The Execution of GomBurZa

by Edmond Plauchut, as Quoted by Jaime Veneracion
Late in the night of the 15th of February 1872, a Spanish court martial found three secular priests,
Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora, guilty of treason as the instigators of a mutiny in
the Kabite navy-yard a month before, and sentenced them to death. The judgement of the court martial
was read to the priests in Fort Santiago early in the next morning and they were told it would be
executed the following day… Upon hearing the sentence, Burgos broke into sobs, Zamora lost his
mind and never recovered it, and only Gomez listened impassively, an old man accustomed to the
thought of death.
When dawn broke on the 17th of February there were almost forty thousand of Filipinos (who
came from as far as Bulakan, Pampanga, Kabite and Laguna) surrounding the four platforms where
the three priests and the man whose testimony had convicted them, a former artilleryman called
Saldua, would die.
The three priests followed Saldua: Burgos ‘weeping like a child’, Zamora with vacant eyes, and
Gomez head held high, blessing the Filipinos who knelt at his feet, heads bared and praying. He was
next to die. When his confessor, a Recollect friar , exhorted him loudly to accept his fate, he replied:
“Father, I know that not a leaf falls to the ground but by the will of God. Since He wills that I should die
here, His holy will be done.”
2
Zamora went up the scaffold without a word and delivered his body to the executioner; his mind had
already left it.
Burgos was the last, a refinement of cruelty that compelled him to watch the death of his
companions. He seated himself on the iron rest and then sprang up crying: “But what crime have I
committed? Is it possible that I should die like this. My God, is there no justice on earth?”
A dozen friars surrounded him and pressed him down again upon the seat of the garrote, pleading
with him to die a Christian death. He obeyed but, feeling his arms tied round the fatal post, protested
once again: “But I am innocent!”
“So was Jesus Christ,’ said one of the friars.” At this Burgos resigned himself. The executioner
knelt at his feet and asked his forgiveness. “I forgive you, my son. Do your duty.” And it was done.
How Rizal was Enlightened by the three priests?

Below is a translated copy of Rizal's dedication to the secular priests. He made some errors in
listing the ages and date of death. Padre Gomes was 72 years old, Padre Burgos was 35, and Padre
Zamora was 37.
"To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomes, eighty-five, Don Jose Burgos, thirty, and
Don Jacinto Zamora, thirty-five, who were executed on the scaffold at Bagumbayan on 28
February 1872.
The Church, by refusing to unfrock you, has put in doubt the crime charged against you; the
Government by enshrouding your trial in mystery and pardoning your co-accused has implied that
some mistakes was committed when your fate was decided; and the whole of the Philippines in
paying homage to your memory and calling you martyrs totally rejects your guilt.
As long, therefore, as it is not clearly shown that you took part in the uprising in Cavite. I have
the right, whether or not you were patriots and whether or not you were seeking justice and liberty,
to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil I am trying to fight. And while we wait for Spain to
clear your names some day, refusing to be a party to your death, let these pages serve as belated
wreath withered leaves on your forgotten graves. Whoever attacks your memory without sufficient
proof has your blood upon his hands."
- J. Rizal
Europe, 1886
GOMBURZA fought on the issues of secularization in the Philippines that led to the conflict of
religious and church seculars. Their execution had a profound effect onmany late 19th-century Filipinos
just like Jose Rizal who dedicate his novel El filibusterismo to their memory, to what they stood for, and
to the symbolic weight their deaths would henceforth hold.
3
4

RIZAL MODULE 5-Midterm

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

RIZAL MODULE 5-Midterm

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

RIZAL’S LIFE:

HIS INTELLECTUAL, ETHICAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL GROWTH

LORD IVAN A. PANCHO

The Execution of GomBurZa

How Rizal was Enlightened by the three priests?

You might also like