José Rizal

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born in 1861 in Calamba, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, to a prosperous family. A brilliant student, he studied at the Ateneo Municipal and the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, and then in Madrid, where he earned a medical degree, before further study in Paris and Heidelberg, specializing in ophthalmology. He learned many languages. In Europe he joined the Propaganda Movement of Filipino reformers who called for representation, equality and freedom of expression under Spanish rule. His novel Noli Me Tangere (1887), published in Berlin, exposed abuses by friars and officials, and its sequel, El Filibusterismo (1891), was darker still. Returning to the Philippines in 1892, he founded the reform society La Liga Filipina and was soon deported to Dapitan on Mindanao, where he practiced medicine, taught and built a school. When the Philippine Revolution broke out in 1896, he was arrested, tried for rebellion and shot in Manila on December 30, 1896, writing the farewell poem Mi último adiós before his death.

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Faith: Raised Catholic, he became a Freemason in Spain, called for Spanish friars to be replaced by Filipino priests, and declined to return to Catholic practice in exile; whether he retracted before his execution is still debated. Source: Wikipedia