At 1pm, December 17, 1871, Rizal left Biñan after a year and a half of formal schooling under Maestro Justiniano Aquino Cruz. On his diary Memorias de Un Estudiante de Manila (1878), he wrote: “One day I received a letter from my sister Saturnina informing me of the arrival of steamship Tallim, which was due to take me away on a certain day. It seems that I had a premonition that I would not be back and so I went often and thoughtfully to the chapel of Nuestra Señora dela Paz y Buen Viaje. I left Biñan on the 17th of December 1871. I was nine years old. It was a Saturday, at one in the afternoon.”
By virtue of City Ordinance 04-2016, the chapel site of Batang Rizal Monument in Dela Paz Parish Church, Biñan City was declared Local Historical Site because of Rizal’s visits when he was a young student in Biñan at age 8-10. The monument was unveiled last December 30, 2016.
