St. Lorenzo Ruiz

St. Lorenzo Ruiz was born around 1600 at Binondo in Manila, the Philippines, to a Chinese father and Filipino mother, and died a martyr on 29 September 1637 at Nagasaki, Japan. A married layman with children, he served his parish as a sacristan and clerk-calligrapher and belonged to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. When he became implicated in a killing — of which he may well have been innocent — he fled the country aboard a ship with a group of Dominican missionaries, not realizing they were bound for Japan, then in the grip of a violent persecution of Christians.

Arrested in Japan, he and his companions were subjected to horrific tortures to force them to renounce their faith. Lorenzo refused, declaring, 'I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God; had I a thousand lives, all these I shall offer to Him.' He died after prolonged torment and is honored as the first Filipino saint. He was canonized in 1987 by Pope St. John Paul II, the first canonization ceremony ever held outside the Vatican.