BIOGRAPHY

Gregoria de Jesus was one of the heroine of the Philippine revolution of 1986.  She was born on May 9, 1875, a native of Kalookan, then a town north of Manila.  Her father was Nicolas de Jesus.  He was a land owner, a master mason and carpenter by occupation.  He also held the hollowing offices in the Spanish colonial bureaucracy: "teniente segundo" (second lieutenant), "teniente mayor" (vice mayor) and "gobernadorcillo" (town mayor).  Her mother, Baltazara Alvarez Francisco, was a native of Novelata, Cavite and a niece of General Mariano Alvarez, the leader of Magdiwang Council in Cavite and one of the local politicians in the said province.

When she was eighteen years old, a young widower named Andres Bonifacio began to visit her.  Andres and Gregoria secretly fell in love.  Her parents disapproved their relationship because Andres Bonifacio was a Freemason.  She was hidden and kept prisoner by her parents in a house in Binondo, Manila.  In deference to her parents, she married Andres in the Catholic Church of Binondo in 1893.  In the evening of the same day, they were united in the Katipunan wedding ceremony.  She was initiated in the Katipunan Woman Chapter headed by Josefa Rizal.  She took the Katipunan symbolic name, "Lakambini" (Princess).  She was entrusted the delicate job of custodian of Katipunan documents, seals, paraphernalia and revolvers.  Gregoria and Benita Javier sewed the first Katipunan flag which consists of red cloth with three white horizontal Ks.

On May 1897, Andres Bonifacio and his brother was executed and Gregoria was set free.  After some time, Gregoria married Julio Nakpil, a talented musician, jeweler and a trusted aide of Bonifacio in Quiapo Church, Manila.  By her second husband, she had eight children.  She died on March 15, 1943 during the dark days of the Japanese occupation in the Philippines.


SOURCE: (Article)

Donor, Danilo. "LAKAMBINI: The Life of Gregoria de Jesus." Filipino Journal. February 2013. 4 March 2013. <http://filipinojournal.com/alberta/our-columnnist/philippine-history/lakambini-the-life-of-gregoria-de-jesus.html>

SOURCE: (Image)

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/images/thumb/6/6e/Gregoria_de_Jesus.jpg/150px-Gregoria_de_Jesus.jpg