Lorenzo Ruiz

Who they were

Lorenzo Ruiz was born at Binondo in Manila and embraced the faith early. A husband and father, he joined a group of Dominican missionaries of the Province of the Holy Rosary and worked with them in several Asian countries, including Taiwan and Japan.

In 1633 the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu ordered all Christians persecuted and imprisoned at Omura. Lorenzo was martyred in Japan on 29 September 1637, with fifteen companions, all linked to the Dominicans: nine Japanese, four Spaniards, a Frenchman and an Italian, priests, religious and lay people, among them Magdalene of Nagasaki and Marina of Omura.

The miracles

He was beatified in Manila in 1981, the first beatification ever held outside the Vatican, and is the first Filipino saint.

Why that counted as sanctity

Lorenzo Ruiz, a layman, husband and father, shared the missionaries' work and their death, and would not deny Christ to save his life.

Connected on this site

• Jacobo Kyushei Tomonaga Saint
  “He is one of the sixteen martyrs of Japan, led by St Lorenzo Ruiz, killed between 1633 and 1637.” — this site's research
• Magdalene of Nagasaki Saint
  “Lorenzo was martyred in Japan on 29 September 1637, with fifteen companions, all linked to the Dominicans: nine Japanese, four Spaniards, a Frenchman and an Italian, priests, religious and lay people, among them Magdalene of Nagasaki and Marina of Omura.” — this site's research
• Alfonso Navarrete Blessed
  “His example quickly became an inspiration to later missionaries to Japan from the Order of Preachers such as canonised saints Giordano Ansalone, Domingo Ibáñez de Erquicia, Guillaume Courtet, and Lorenzo Ruiz.” — Wikipedia