st. lorenzo ruiz

• Saints Lorenzo Ruiz and José de Ávila are Filipino saints venerated in the Catholic Church.
• Lorenzo Ruiz was born around 1600 in the Binondo district of Manila to a Chinese and Filipino couple.
• Lorenzo's father taught him Chinese while his mother taught him Tagalog.
• The Spaniards ruled over the lands for 333 years and because of this, Lorenzo spoke three languages: Tagalog, Spanish, and Chinese.
• Lorenzo attended a school run by Spanish Dominican friars as well as serving as an altar boy.
• Lorenzo joined the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary and was known for his honesty and trustworthiness.
• Lorenzo grew up and married a Filipino woman named Rosario and they had three children.
• Lorenzo continued to work as a clerk and as a translator for the Spaniards and their life remained normal.
• Lorenzo kept his close ties with the Dominicans and helped them in ministering to the people in Manila, especially those in the Binondo district.
• Lorenzo's normal life took a bad turn when he was implicated in the murder of a Spaniard.
• Lorenzo couldn't trust the courts as he knew that much a lifetime of colonial inequality had taught him that a legal battle between Spaniards and Filipinos under Spanish laws wasn't a legal battle at all.
• Lorenzo decided to leave his home and seek a safe place to hide for a while.
• Lorenzo confided his problem to Father Domingo Gonzalez, a Dominican priest, and was allowed to board their ship.
• The three Dominican priests on the ship were Saint Antonio Gonzalez, Saint Guillermo Quartet, and Saint Miguel de Azura.
• There was a Japanese priest present named Saint Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz and also a lay leper saint Lazaro of Kyoto.
• All of them sailed for Okinawa on June 10, 1636.
• As soon as the group landed in Japan, they were arrested in a violent persecution against Christians was being enforced by Emperor Tokugawa Yamaitsu to prevent the spread of Christianity in Japan.
• The missionaries were arrested and thrown into prison and after two years, they were executed.
• The prisoners were forced to drink inhuman amounts of water, stabbed, pressed, soaked, and repeatedly crushed.
• Lorenzo saw this and got terrified for a moment, but he quickly prayed the rosary and found relief.
• The group endured many and various cruel methods of torture back in Manila.
• The missionaries were subjected to water torture first, despite the painful torture, the men refused to renounce their faith.
• St. Lorenzo Ruiz is the patron saint of Filipino youth, the Philippines, people working overseas, and altar servers.
• There are countless miracles attributed to St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the one that stands out the most was the story of Cecilia Allegria Polycarpio, a two-year-old girl suffering from a rare brain disease.
• St. Lorenzo Ruiz was beatified by Pope John Paul II on February 18, 1981, the first beatification ceremony ever held outside the Vatican.
• While they were put back in the jail, they witnessed the tortures other prisoners had to endure for not obeying the emperor.
• Once the group of missionaries reached Nagasaki, they were to face trials and torture for being a Christian.
• Following this, the soldiers hung the missionaries upside down over a large pit.
• The missionaries agreed to leave Japan but they said they will never renounce their faith, which made the shogun lord extremely furious.
• The shoguns considered the group's decision as an insult to their empire and immediately sent the prisoners to their slow and painful execution.
• The emperor gave them an offer to leave Japan as long as they were willing to renounce their faith.
• The following morning, her illness was completely gone, and she was able to sit on the bed by herself for the first time in her life.
• Rosario and Lorenzo were transferred to Nagasaki to face trial by torture.
• The torture would stop if they renounced their faith.
• One among the soldiers took pity on Lorenzo and persuaded him to renounce his faith to end his agony, but Lorenzo answered, "I will never do because I am a Christian and I shall die for God and for him I would give many thousands of lives if I had them."
• St. Lorenzo Ruiz died as he lived, a servant of the Lord.
• Lorenzo died from bleeding and suffocation and so did the other missionaries.
• St. Lorenzo Ruiz's canonization took place at the Vatican on October 18, 1987.
• One night as her family and supporters prayed to St. Lorenzo for his intercession, the saint appeared to her in a vision.