Lorenzo Ruiz and companions
Manila father of a family who boarded a ship for Japan by mistake, first Filipino saint, dead under the torture of the pit.
- Early modern era
- Japan
- Feast day September 28
- † 1637
- Martyr
- Missionary
Listen to the life 1:03
Lorenzo Ruiz was a calligrapher and sacristan in Manila, son of a Chinese father and a Tagalog mother, married and father of three, when an accusation drove him to board a ship in flight: only at sea did he learn he was bound for Japan, where Christianity was punished by death. There were six of them aboard — four Dominicans, including the Frenchman Guillaume Courtet, and the lay leper Lázaro of Kyoto. Arrested at Okinawa, they suffered at Nagasaki the torture of the pit, hung head down over a hole. Lorenzo was promised his life if he recanted; the acts record his answer: he had a thousand lives to offer, and would not recant. He died on 29 September 1637 and was canonised in 1987 with fifteen companions put to death separately between 1633 and 1637 — the first saint of the Philippines.
