Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ruiz on a stained-glass window in Cubao Cathedral | |
| First Saint and Protomartyr of the Philippines | |
| Born | November 28, 1594 Binondo, Manila Captaincy General of the Philippines, Spanish Empire |
| Died | September 29, 1637 (aged 42) Nagasaki, Hizen Province, Tokugawa Shogunate |
| Cause of death | Tsurushi |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | February 18, 1981, Manila, Philippines by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | October 18, 1987, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Major shrine | Binondo Church, Binondo, Manila, Philippines |
| Feast | September 28 |
| Attributes | Rosary in clasped hands, gallows and pit, Barong Tagalog or camisa de chino and black trousers, cross, palm of martyrdom |
| Patronage | The Philippines, Filipinos, Overseas Filipino Workers and migrant workers, immigrants, the poor, separated families, Filipino youth, Chinese-Filipinos, Filipino Altar servers, Tagalogs, Archdiocese of Manila. |
| Lorenzo Ruiz | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 李樂倫 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 李乐伦 | ||||||||||||||
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Lorenzo Ruiz (Filipino: Lorenzo Ruiz ng Maynila; Chinese: 李樂倫; Spanish: Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila; November 28, 1594 – September 29, 1637), also called Saint Lorenzo of Manila, is a Filipino saint venerated in the Catholic Church. A Chinese Filipino, he became his country's protomartyr after his execution in Japan by the Tokugawa Shogunate during its persecution of Japanese Christians in the 17th century.
Lorenzo Ruiz is the patron saint of, among others, the Philippines and the Filipino people.
Lorenzo Ruiz was born in Binondo, Manila, on 28 November 1594, to a Chinese father and a Filipino mother who were both Catholic. His father taught him Chinese while his mother taught him Tagalog.[1][2]
Lorenzo served as an altar boy at the Binondo Church. After being educated by the Dominican friars for a few years, Lorenzo earned the title of escribano (scrivener) because of his skillful penmanship. He became a member of the Cofradía del Santísimo Rosario (Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary). He married Rosario, a native, and they had two sons and a daughter.[3] The Ruiz family led a generally peaceful, religious and content life.
In 1636, while working as a clerk for the Binondo Church, Lorenzo was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard. Lorenzo sought asylum on board a ship with three Dominican priests: Antonio Gonzalez, Guillermo Courtet, and Miguel de Aozaraza; a Japanese priest, Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz; and a lay leper Lázaro of Kyoto. Lorenzo and his companions sailed for Okinawa on 10 June 1636, with the aid of the Dominican fathers.[1][2][4]
The Tokugawa Shogunate was persecuting Christians because they feared that the Spanish invaded the Philippines through using religion by the time Lorenzo had arrived in Japan. The missionaries were arrested and thrown into prison, and after two years, they were transferred to Nagasaki to face trial by torture. The group endured many and various cruel methods of torture.[3]
On 27 September 1637, Lorenzo and his companions were taken to Nishizaka Hill, where they were tortured by being hung upside-down over a pit. He died two days later on 29 September 1637, aged 42. This form of torture was known as tsurushi (釣殺し) in Japanese or horca y hoya ("gallows and pit") in Spanish. The method, alleged to have been extremely painful, had the victim bound; one hand was always left free so that the individual may signal their desire to recant, leading to their release. Despite his suffering, Lorenzo refused to renounce Christianity and died from eventual blood loss and suffocation. His last words were, "I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God. Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him I shall offer. Do with me as you please." After his death his body was cremated. His ashes were then thrown into the sea of Nagasaki to prevent other Christians from gathering his sacred relics.[1][2][4]
According to Latin missionary accounts sent back to Manila, Lorenzo declared these words upon his death:
Ego Catholicus sum et animo prompto paratoque pro Deo mortem obibo.
Si mille vitas haberem, cunctas ei offerrem.
(I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God;
Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.)[3]
The Positio Super Introductione Causae or the cause of beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz was written by Spanish historian Fidel Villarroel. The central document found to exhibit Ruiz's martyrdom was an eyewitness account by two Japanese ex-priests from the Society of Jesus, rediscovered by Villaroel at the Jesuit Generalate archive in Rome, an unlikely location as Ruiz was of the Dominican order.[5] Lorenzo was beatified during Pope John Paul II's papal visit to the Philippines in 1981.[6][7][8] It was the first beatification ceremony to be held outside the Vatican in history. Lorenzo was canonized by the same pope in the Vatican City on October 18, 1987, among the 16 Martyrs of Japan, making him the first Filipino saint.[1][2][4]
His canonization was supported by a miracle in October 1983, when Cecilia Alegria Policarpio of Calinog, Iloilo, was cured of brain atrophy (hydrocephalus) at the age of two, after her family and supporters prayed to Lorenzo for his intercession. She was diagnosed with the condition shortly after birth and was treated at University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center.[9]
Lorenzo Ruiz is included in American painter John Nava's Communion of Saints Tapestries, a depiction of 135 saints and beati which hangs inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California.[10]
On September 28, 1997, the 10th anniversary of Lorenzo's canonization was celebrated.
On September 28, 2007, the Catholic Church celebrated the 20th anniversary of Lorenzo's canonization. Then-archbishop of Manila Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales said: "Kahit saan nandoon ang mga Pilipino, ang katapatan sa Diyos ay dala-dala ng Pinoy." ("Wheresoever Filipinos are, the Pinoy brings fidelity to God.")[11]
A mosaic of San Lorenzo is found in the Trinity Dome of Mary's National Shrine in Washington DC.
On September 28, 2017, the 30th anniversary of Lorenzo's canonization was celebrated in the Archdiocese of Manila.
