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Celebration of San Lorenzo Ruiz & Companions
September 27, 2014 @ 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas A. Daly will preside at the annual celebration of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila and Companions on Saturday, September 27, at St. Elizabeth church in Milpitas. Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. This event is sponsored by the Diocesan Council of Filipino Catholics. All are invited to this celebration.
Downloads: Press Release | Event Flyer
For more information, please contact Lou (408) 439 9414; Poi (408) 729 7228; Eleanor (408) 227 5338.
San Lorenzo Ruiz (1600-1637) is the first Filipino saint and martyr venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. He was martyred during severe persecution of Japanese Christians under the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 17th century.
Lorenzo Ruiz was beatified in Manila, Philippines on February 18, 1981 by Pope John Paul II during his Papal visit to Manila, the first beatification ceremony held outside the Vatican. San Lorenzo Ruiz was elevated to sainthood and canonized by Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City, Rome on October 18, 1987.
Born in Manila, San Lorenzo was of mixed Chinese and Filipino descent. In 1636, while working as a clerk at the Binondo Church, Ruiz was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard. After the allegation, he left his wife, two sons and a daughter and sought asylum on board a ship with three Dominican priests – St. Antonio Gonzales, St. Guillermo Courtet, St. Miguel de Aozaraza; a Japanese priest, St. Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz; and a layman and leper, St. Lazaro of Kyoto. They left for Japan on June 10, 1636 with the aid of the Dominican fathers.
The boat landed in Okinawa and the group was arrested and persecuted based on their Christian religion. They were tortured horribly, which made some of Ruiz’s companions recant their faith, but Ruiz never did: “I will never do it. I am a Catholic and happy to die for God. If I have a thousand lives to offer, I will offer them to God.” On September 27, 1637, they were taken to the “Mountain of Martyrs”, where they were hung upside down into a pit. This mode of torture was considered the most painful way to die at the time. Two days after, Ruiz died from hemorrhage and suffocation. His body was cremated and his ashes were thrown into the sea.