Saints Lawrence Ruiz and Companions

Saint Lawrence Ruiz and his fifteen companions are martyrs who gave their lives for the faith in Japan, in and around Nagasaki, between 1633 and 1637. Among them were Dominican priests and religious brothers, two tertiaries, and three laymen, people from Japan, Spain, France, Italy, and the Philippines. Lawrence, a layman, husband, and father, is the first canonized Filipino. The Church commemorates them together on September 28.

Lawrence was born in Binondo, a district of Manila, the son of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother of the Tagalog people. The year of his birth is not certain; it is usually given as about 1600. He grew up with the Dominicans, learned the catechism at their school in Binondo, and served in the parish church there. He was a calligrapher and copied documents. He belonged to the Confraternity of the Rosary. With his wife, Rosario, he had three children.

In 1636 his life changed suddenly. According to a note by a Dominican of his time, the authorities were looking for him in connection with a homicide at which he had been present or which was attributed to him; what part he had in it is not known. He then joined missionaries who were sailing from Manila to Japan, where a bloody persecution of Christians was under way. The group was led by the Spanish Dominican Anthony González. It also included the Dominicans Michael de Aozaraza, William Courtet, and the Japanese Vincent Shiwozuka, as well as a Japanese layman, Lazarus of Kyoto.

On Okinawa they were all soon imprisoned and kept in chains for a year. They were then taken to Nagasaki and brought before the court. Torture was used to force them to renounce the faith. Vincent and Lazarus wavered for a time, and Lawrence himself, at one of the hardest moments, asked the interpreter whether his life would be spared if he denied his faith. In the end, however, he told the judges that he was a Christian, that he must die for God, and that he would give his life for him a thousand times. Anthony González died in prison, worn out, on September 24, 1637.

The remaining five were hung head down on Nishizaka hill, with the upper part of the body in a pit. This torment lasted three days. Lawrence died on September 29, 1637; accounts differ as to whether he died in the pit or was beheaded at the end. The other companions had died earlier, in 1633 and 1634. Among them were the superior of the mission, Dominic Ibáñez de Erquicia, the Japanese priest James Kyushei Tomonaga, and two young tertiaries, Magdalene of Nagasaki and Marina of Omura, who was burned alive.

John Paul II beatified the sixteen martyrs on February 18, 1981, in Manila; it was the first time in history that a beatification took place outside Rome. The same pope canonized them on October 18, 1987, in Rome, on World Mission Day. On that occasion he held up Lawrence, husband and father of three children, as an example for Filipino families. The Roman Martyrology also commemorates each of the martyrs on the day of his or her death, Lawrence on September 29.