GOMBURZA

GOMBURZA is an acronym composed of the initials of the surnames of the priests Mariano Philippine Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora. All three are venerated in the Philippines as a national hero.

The three priests were regarded as a liberal free-thinkers and campaigned for a modernization of the Spanish colony of the Philippines. All three were followers of the secularization movement within the Catholic Church, coming from Spain, the Philippines recorded in the 1850s and was greatly influenced by Pedro Pelaez. The three priests were summoned by the newly appointed governor of the Philippines Joaquin Pardo de Taverain into the reform committee. As head of the group was Jose Burgos, who was with the Archbishop of Manila, Gregorio Martinez, known. Mariano Gomez, alongside his work in the Commission priest in Bacoor and published articles in the newspaper La Verdad ( The Truth ), in which he repeatedly described the possibilities of modernization.

After the replacement of de la Torre by Rafael Izquierdo began a period of reactionary renewal, in which the reforms were reversed and, for example, the press censorship was reintroduced. The three priests were arrested in connection with the Cavite uprising of 20 January 1872 and sentenced to death on February 6. They were accused of having been a subversive act. As, to date the files to the process and the judgment of Spain were not disclosed, it is assumed that the three of them should be an example statuiert. The sentence was carried out on February 17 in Bagumbayan, today's Rizal Park in Manila, by the garrote. In protest against the execution was the Archbishop of Manila, the church bells ringing, which was met with the Spanish monastic orders disapproval because they made parts of the Exekutionskommados.

In the Philippine public execution met with incomprehension. It developed its moving the Illustrados and the Propaganda Movement of Filipino students in Europe, which should eventually lead to the Liga Filipina and the Katipunan. A leading member of the Propaganda movement was José Rizal, the Noli me tangere in his work ( Move not to me) the three priests sat a literary monument. Since the three of the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898) are regarded as martyrs. You at the place of their execution, in Rizal Park in Manila, a memorial has been set.