Ruiz, Saint Lorenzo (1600?-1637?), was the first Filipino to be declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. He is considered a martyr—that is, a person who has suffered or died for his beliefs. Ruiz was executed in Japan with a group of Christian missionaries about 1637.
Lorenzo Ruiz was born in Manila, the Philippines, about 1600. His father was Chinese, and his mother was Filipina. After being educated as a calligrapher and clerk, Ruiz worked for Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, a Chinese Catholic church in Manila’s Binondo district. In 1636, he fled the Philippines to escape a criminal charge, of which no detailed record has survived. Leaving behind his wife and children, Ruiz joined a group of Dominican missionaries and traveled with them to Japan. At that time, Japanese rulers wanted to stop the spread of Christianity. They saw it as a dangerous foreign influence that threatened the rule of the shogunate (warrior government).
When the missionaries reached Okinawa, they were jailed for a year. They were then taken to Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki, where they were tried and tortured to force them to renounce (give up) their faith. Nagasaki had a large Christian population, and the authorities hoped their treatment of the missionaries would convince other Christians to renounce their faith. None of the missionaries gave in, and all of them died while being tortured. When asked if he would recant (give up his beliefs), Lorenzo is said to have replied: “I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God; had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.” The bodies of Lorenzo and his companions were burned. Their ashes were thrown into the sea so they could not be honored as relics—that is, sacred objects associated with holy people.
Ruiz was canonized (declared a saint) by Pope John Paul II in October 1987, when the pope visited the Philippines. His feast day is September 28.
