Jose Rizal

at the
UNIVERSITY OF
SANTO TOMAS
(1877-1882)

Mothers Opposition to Higher

Mothers Opposition
to
Higher
Education
Education
Her Reason: If Rizal gets to learn
more, the Spaniards will cut off his
head.
In contrary, Paciano and Don
Francisco wanted Rizal to pursue
College Education.
Take note:
The Bachelor ofArts degree during
Spanish times was equivalent to a

Conversion (1877Rizals
Grades
Sobresaliente
= 1.00
Excellent
1878) = 1.50
Notable, Aprovechade
Very Good
Bueno
= 2.00
Good
Mediano
= 2.50
Fair
Aprovado
= 3.00
Passed
Suspenso
= 4.00
Philosophy and Letters
Conditioned
Cosmology
Reprobado & Metaphysics= 5.00
Sobresaliente
Failed

Theodicy
Sobresaliente
History of Philosophy
Sobresaliente

Rizals Grades (18771878)

UST was under the

Dominicans, rival of the Jesuits
in education.
He remained loyal to Ateneo,
participated in extracurricular
activities and completed a
course in surveying in that
same school.

Enrollment at UST
Philosophy and Letters during his
freshman year. (1877-1878)
Why Philosophy & Letters?
1.) Don Francisco liked it.
2.) Uncertainty on what course to take
up.
3.) Failure to solicit the advice of
Father Ramon Pablo, Ateneos Rector,
who was then at Mindanao.

Rizals enters the

University
April 1877
Rizal enrolled at UST, taking the course on
Philosophy and Letters.
Reasons:
1. His father liked it.
2. He was still uncertain as to what career to
pursue.
Fr. Pablo Ramon
rector of the Ateneo.

1877 1878
Rizal studied Cosmology, Metaphysics,
Theodicy, and History of Philosophy during
his first year term.
1877 1879
Rizal took up medical course upon the
advised of Ateneos Rector to study medicine.
Reason:
-- To be able to cure his mothers growing
blindness.

Extra-curricular activities in Ateneo

while studying at UST:

President of the Academy of Spanish

Literature
Secretary of the Academy of Natural
Sciences
Secretary of the Marian Congregation

Other Extra-curricular Activities

Literary contests:
Liceo Artistico Literario de Manila
A La Juventud Filipina (To the
Filipino Youth)
El Consej de los Dioses (The
Council of the Gods)
Wrote one-act play:
Junto al Pasig
Poems:
Abd el-Aziz y Mohama
Al M.R.P. Pablo Ramon

Medical Studies at UST

Shifting from PHL & Letters to
Medicine.
Why did Rizal Shift to Medical
course?
1.) Don Pablo Ramon, Ateneo Rector,
advised
him to choose medicine.
2.) Rizal wanted to cure his mothers
growing blindness.

Scholastic Records from 18781882

1st year Medicine (1878-1879)
Physics
Fair
Chemistry
Excellent
Natural History
Fair
Anatomy 1
Good
Dissection 1
Good
2nd year Medicine (1879-1880)
Anatomy 2
Good
Dissection 2
Good
Physiology
Good
Private Hygiene
Good
Public Hygiene
Good

3rd year Medicine (1880-1881)

General Pathology
Fair
Therapeutics
Excellent
Surgery
Good
4th year Medicine (1881-1882)
Medical Pathology
Very
Good
Surgical Pathology
Very
Good
Obstetrics
Very
Good

Reasons Why Rizal didnt enjoy

his stay at UST:
1.) Hostility of Dominican Professors to him.
2.) Racial discrimination against Filipino students.
3.) Dissatisfaction with the method of instruction.
Reasons why Rizal performed poorly at UST:
1.) Medicine is not his vocation.
2.) Discontentment with the system of education.
3.) Distractions of youth.

Student Activism at UST

- Rizal displayed his
leadership in student activism.
Indio/chongo vs
kastila/bangus
Bitter hostility exist
Racial animosity

Compaerismo
(The Comradeship)
-Inspired by Alexander Dumas, Three Musketeers
Secret Society of Filipino Students
Companions of Jehu
Inspired by Les Compagnons de Jehu
Rizal (president)
Galiciano Apacible (secretary)

Humiliating treatment of brown Filipino students

Archaic method of instruction at UST
Favoritism & skin color criteria for academic
performance

Spanish Brutality
happened during his 1st summer
vacation at Calamba after his
freshman year.
Failure to perceive a lieutenant
during that night.
Gen. Primo de Rivera Gov. General
of the Philippines at that time.

Finishing Medicine at
UST
Notable in all of his subjects.
He was the 2nd best student in a
class of seven who passed the
medicine course.

Decision to Go to Europe
To complete his medical course in Barcelona,
Spain.
To make a name for himself in the field of
Journalism.
To observe and study European Society.
To prepare himself for the task of liberating
the Filipinos from Spanish Tyranny.

Important
Literary Works
as a University
Student (UST)

 El Consejo de los Dioses

Junto al Pasig
A Filipinas
To the Filipino Youth (A
La Juventud Filipina)

RIZAL LEFT UST FOR SPAIN

UNFRIENDLINESS IN UST
BLACK LISTED BY THE
GOVERNMENT
HELP MOTHERLAND

HE LEFT
WITHOUT PARENTS BLESSINGS
PASSPORT UNDER JOSE
MERCADO
700 pesos FROM PACIANO
DIAMOND RING FROM
SATURNINA

Education in Europe
Traveled alone to Europe
Madrid in May 1882
Continued his studies in
Medicine at the
Universidad Central de
Madrid
Degree of Licentiate in
Medicine in 1884
Degree of Philosophy
and Letters in 1885

Spain as a realization
It was a venue for realizing Rizals dreams.
He finished his studies in Madrid and this to him was
the realization of the bigger part of his ambition.
His vision broadened to the point of awakening in
him an understanding of human nature, sparking in
him the realization that his people needed him.
It must have been this sentiment that prompted him
to pursue, during the re-organizational meeting of
the Circulo-Hispano-Filipino, to be one of its
activities, the publication of a book to which all the
members would contribute papers on the various
aspects and conditions of Philippines life.

Spain as a realization
The proposal for the book was unanimously
approved.
But afterwards, difficulties and objections were
raised, and a number of gentlemen stood up and
refused to discuss the matter any further in 1884.
Rizal decided not to press the issue any longer.
Although the book was never written, the next
year, Pedro Paterno published his Ninay, a novel
sub-titled Costumbres filipinas (Philippines
Customs), thus partly fulfilling the original purpose
of Rizals plan.

Noli Me Tangere
The idea of writing a
novel grew on him, and
later he decided to
write and worked hard
for Noli Me Tangere
He never told anyone
about it until it was
finished, though some
of his companions knew
what he was doing
He wrote half of the
novel in Madrid, a
quarter of it in Paris and

Education in Europe
University of Paris
(France)
University of Heidelberg
(Germany)
Earned a second
doctorate
Inducted as a member
of the Berlin
Ethnological Society
and the Berlin
Anthropological Society
under the patronage of
the famous pathologist
Rudolf Virchow

University of
Heidelberg

25-year-old Rizal
completed in 1887 his eye
specialization under the
renowned Prof. Otto
Becker in Heidelberg

Left Heidelberg a poem,

A las flores del
Heidelberg; both an
evocation and a prayer for
the welfare of his native
land and the unification of
common values between
East and West

A las flores del

Heidelberg
Go to my country, go foreign
flowers,
Planted by the traveler on his
way,
And there beneath that sky of
blue
That over my beloved towers,
Speak for this traveler to say
What faith in his homeland he
breathes to you.
Go and say.... Say that when
the dawn
First brew your calyx open
there
Beside the River Necker chill,
You saw him standing by you,
very
still,
Reflecting on the primrose flush
you
wear.
Say that when the morning
light

That when the rising sun the

height
Of Koenigsthul in early morn first
spies,
And with its tepid light
Is pouring life in valley, wood,
and
grove,
He greets the sun as it begins to
rise,
Which in his native land is
blazing
straight above.
And tell them of that day he
staid
And plucked you from the border
of the
path,
Amid the ruins of the feudal
castle,
By the River Neckar, and in the
sylvan
shade.

Carry, carry, flowers of Rhine,

Love to every love of mine,
Peace to my country and her fertile
loam,
Virtue to her women, courage to
her men,
Salute those darling ones again,
Who formed the sacred circle of our
home.
And when you reach that shore,
Each kiss I press upon you now,
Deposit on the pinions of the wind,
And those I love and honor and
adore
Will feel my kisses carried to their
brow.
Ah, flowers, you may fare through,
Conserving still, perhaps, your
native hue;
Yet, far from Fatherland, heroic
loam
To which you owe your life,
The perfume will be gone from you;

Rizals Life in Europe

Jose Rizal lived in Europe for 10 years.
He could converse in more than 10 different
tongues.
Excelled at martial arts, fencing, sculpture, painting,
teaching, anthropology, and journalism, among
other things.
During his European sojourn, he also began to write
novels. Rizal finished his first book, Noli Me Tangere,
while living in Wilhemsfeld with the Reverend Karl
Ullmer.