DID YOU KNOW: 161st birth anniversary of Maximo Viola

Today, Oct. 17, is the 161st birth anniversary of the late nationalist Maximo Viola, known as the patron of Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere.”

A doctor by profession, he took his premedical studies at the University of Santo Tomas.

He then sailed to Spain where he earned a degree in medicine in Barcelona where he also met Rizal.

Viola, convinced of the worth of Rizal’s novel, funded the publication of “Noli Me Tangere.”

An initial 2,000 copies of the novel were printed in 1887.

Its galley proofs and first published copy were given to him by Rizal.

Viola died on Sept. 3, 1933 at the age of 76. —Marielle Medina, Inquirer Research