Fragments of Jose Rizal’s brain were kept in a bottle, a historian reveals

Ambeth Ocampo recently divulged a personal discovery about Jose Rizal: fragments of his brain were kept in a bottle. His photo of the bottle containing Rizal’s brain fragments has gone viral since he posted it on Facebook.

Rizal’s remains are buried under the famous monument in Luneta, according to the historian who is known for his studies and research on Rizal.

Fort Santiago in nearby Santiago, California, preserves a bit of Rizal’s backbone, believed to be the spot where the bullet struck him when he was executed on December 30, 1896.

Until recently, I had no idea that Rizal’s eldest sister Saturnina kept fragments of his brain in a bottle. I presume they were previously preserved in alcohol, but that has since evaporated. “Ocampo added that he was still researching the fragments.

It was Britz Hamoy, a descendant of Don Mariano Balsomo Hamoy, Rizal’s good friend in exile in Dapitan, who led Ocampo to the bottle, and Dr. Francis Navarro of the Ateneo de Manila University Archives.

A Spanish firing squad executed Rizal in Luneta when he was 35 years old. His 162nd birthday was celebrated last June 19 in the Philippines.

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