Saint Lorenzo Ruiz
September 28th, 2007 by Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P.
Lorenzo Ruiz, born around 1600 in Manila, was a husband and father educated by the Dominicans. He worked as a calligrapher for his parish, transcribing baptismal, confirmation, and marriage documents. When Ruiz was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard, the Spanish Dominican Friars, believing in his innocence, immediately sent him on a missionary expedition led by Fray Domingo Ibanez that eventually landed in Okinawa, Japan.Just after landfall, the group was captured and tortured for more than a year because of their Christian beliefs. Ruiz was among the prisoners who would not renounce their faith. On September 27, 1637, Ruiz, Fray Domingo, and their companions were taken to what is now known as the Mountain of Martyrs, a hill overlooking the Bay of Nagasaki, where they were hung upside down in a pit. Ruiz died a martyr two days later on September 29, 1637. His body was cremated and his ashes cast into the sea. Beatified in 1981 and canonized in October of 1987, St. Lorenzo Ruiz’s feast day is September 28.
