The Relicario Of María Clara

Rizal’s Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo describe conditions in the Philippines in the twilight of the Spanish regime, no doubt with a bit of exaggeration because it was a propaganda piece intended to make the authorities sit up and do something.

- Wala Lang Dr. Jaime Laya

The titles were carefully chosen. Noli me tangere was Christ’s admonition to María Magdalena, the first phrase of “Touch me not, for I am not ascended to the Father.” The unmistakable implication was that time was not right for revolution. El Filibusterismo means subversion and the sequel indeed describes attempts to undermine and overthrow the regime.

Characters of the two books are linked by a reliquary, a gold locket. The precious object’s journey is the subject of a painting by Gromyko Semper of Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.

The characters and their tragedies

Crisostomo Ibarra is the hero of both novels and Basilio, the sacristan who survived brutal punishment in Noli, is also in Fili, a medical student. María Clara, Ibarra’s sweetheart, is in Fili as well, a nun in the Real Monasterio de Santa Clara, along with her stalker Padre Salví, who got himself assigned there as her confessor.

Crisostomo Ibarra is an idealistic reformer framed as a rebel by Padre Salví. Eluding arrest, Ibarra was thought dead, but in fact was able to escape into exile. With Ibarra gone and rather than be forced into a loveless marriage, María Clara enters the monastery.