Sept. 29 is 337th death anniversary of first Filipino saint Lorenzo Ruiz

Monday, Sept. 29, is Saint Lorenzo Ruiz's 377th death anniversary. The first Filipino saint, also known as San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, died as a martyr in Nagasaki on September 29, 1637 at the age of 34.

In 1636, accused of murdering a Spaniard, Ruiz boarded a ship carrying a group of missionaries to Formosa (Taiwan) and Japan. Ruiz accompanied his companions to Nagasaki, where Christians were being persecuted due to Japan's wariness of foreign colonialism.

According to accounts, the Japanese promised Ruiz that they would free him if he denounced Christianity. He refused, and was tortured and hanged upside down until he died. His martyrdom and a miracle attributed to his intervention led to his elevation into sainthood.

Pope John Paul II beatified Ruiz in 1981 during his visit to the Philippines, and later canonized him as the Philippines' first saint in 1987.

San Lorenzo Ruiz is the patron saint of the Philippines as well as of overseas Filipino workers, Filipino youth, and Chinese Filipinos, among others.

His feast day is on September 28, the day before every anniversary of his death. — Trisha Macas/BM, GMA News