This is the second installment (borrowed from Wikipedia) explaining some history of the five saints portrayed down the left-hand side of the church. They were selected because they represent different communities in our parish. Today’s saint is Filipino Lorenzo Ruiz (November 28, 1594 – September 29, 1637), also called Saint Lorenzo of Manila. 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.
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 Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary. He married Rosario, a native, and they had two sons and a daughter. The Ruiz family led a generally peaceful, religious and content life.
In 1636, whilst 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.
The Tokugawa Shogunate was persecuting Christians 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.
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. 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 body was cremated, with the ashes thrown into the sea.
According to Latin missionary accounts sent back to Manila, Lorenzo declared these words upon his death: I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God; Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.
The following is a reminder of the new Mass times beginning the weekend of Sept 11-12
Saturday:
5:30 PM – Mission Church
Sunday
8:00 AM – Mission Church
10:00 AM – Main Church
12:00 PM – Main Church – Mass with Family of Faith
3:00 PM – Mass in Vietnamese
5:00 PM – Mass in Chinese
7:00 PM – Mission Church – Mass with Youth, Confirmation, and Young Adults