José Rizal (1861-1896), Philippine poet and patriot, exact contemporary of Tagore and forerunner of Gandhi, died before a Spanish hiring squad, aged 35. His writings inspired the Philippine Revolution of 1896-8, the earliest national uprising against a colonial power in Asia. But Rizal himself was eclipsed when the main scene of Asia’s struggle for independence shifted from the Philippines to India. In his own country he continues to be revered as a national hero, and has had greater influence on his people than any other man.

The Spanish philosopher Unamuno described Rizal as the Tagalog Christ; and his life, while dedicated to his people, has a universal relevance. In Asia he stands with Sun Yat-sen, Gandhi and Tagore, as one who re-moulded the thinking of a continent.
But as a Catholic in the age of Darwin and Frazer he transcends both country and continent. In the harmony of religious faith and scientific knowledge which his life demonstrates, he stands in Asia for what Renan and Teilhard de Chardin stand for in the West, with the difference that Rizal was killed for what he believed, the instigators of his death being Spanish friar missionaries out of touch with Catholic changes in Europe.

This, the first European biography of Rizal to be published since 1907, when Retana’s Vida y Escritos del Dr. José Rizal appeared amid the national soul-searching of Spain’s “Generation of 1898’ , restores
to the place he deserves one of the noblest figures Asia has ever produced.