Early Life of Rizal

In Calamba, Laguna 19 June 1861

JOSE RIZAL, the seventh child of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso y Quintos, was born in Calamba, Laguna.

22 June 1861

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.

28 September 1862

The parochial church of Calamba and the canonical books, including the book in which Rizal’s baptismal records were entered, were burned.

1864

Barely three years old, Rizal learned the alphabet from his mother.

1865

When he was four years old, his sister Conception, the eight child in the Rizal family, died at the age of three. It was on this occasion that Rizal remembered having shed real tears for the first time.

1865 – 1867

During this time his mother taught him how to read and write. His father hired a classmate by the name of Leon Monroy who, for five months until his (Monroy) death, taught Rizal the rudiments of Latin.

At about this time two of his mother’s cousin frequented Calamba. Uncle Manuel Alberto, seeing Rizal frail in body, concerned himself with the physical development of his young nephew and taught the latter love for the open air and developed in him a great admiration for the beauty of nature, while Uncle Gregorio, a scholar, instilled into the mind of the boy love for education. He advised Rizal: "Work hard and perform every task very carefully; learn to be swift as well as thorough; be independent in thinking and make visual pictures of everything."

6 June 1868 

With his father, Rizal made a pilgrimage to Antipolo to fulfill the vow made by his mother to take the child to the Shrine of the Virgin of Antipolo should she and her child survive the ordeal of delivery which nearly caused his mother’s life.

From there they proceeded to Manila and visited his sister Saturnina who was at the time studying in the La Concordia College in Sta. Ana.

1869

At the age of eight, Rizal wrote his first poem...