Jose Rizal
José Rizal
José Rizal portrait from a 1902 Painting by Fabian Dela RosaDr. José Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonzo Realonda (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), variously called the “Pride of the Malay Race,” “The Great Malayan,” “The First Filipino,” “The Messiah of the Revolution,” “The Universal Hero,” “The Messiah of the Redemption,” was an eye surgeon and is the national hero of the Philippines.
Rizal was a polyglot. He mastered 22 languages which included Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, Malay, Sanskrit, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Cebuano and other Philippine languages.
As a polymath, he was also an architect, artist, educator, economist, ethnologist, scientific farmer, historian, inventor, journalist, musician, mythologist, internationalist, naturalist, novelist, ophthalmologist, physician, poet, propagandist, sculptor, and sociologist.
A patriot of the highest order, the anniversary of Rizal’s death, December 30, is now celebrated as a holiday in the Philippines, called Rizal Day.
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