Memorial garden for San Lorenzo Ruiz, Japanese saints blessed in Nagasaki

A memorial garden for Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, and several Japanese saints was blessed in Nagasaki, Japan this week, the Philippine Embassy in Japan said Thursday.

The embassy said Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Cardinal Quevedo blessed the garden last Monday, March 16.

"On 16 March 2015, Cardinal Quevedo blessed the memorial garden at Nagasaki’s Nakamachi Church dedicated to St. Thomas Nishi and his 15 companions, among them San Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint. The martyrs died between 1633 and 1637 in Nagasaki during the Tokugawa Shogunate’s oppression of Christians," it said.

Philippine officials were present at the event.

Pope John Paul II beatified Ruiz and his companions in Manila on Feb. 17, 1981, and canonized them on October 18, 1987 at the Vatican.

Quevedo was in Japan as Pope Francis' envoy in commemorative activities to mark the 150th anniversary of the discovery of Japan’s hidden Christians.

Citing information from the Nagasaki Archdiocese, the Embassy said that the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin asked Nagasaki Archbishop Joseph Asajiro Cardinal Satowaki in the 1980s if a statue of San Lorenzo Ruiz could be erected in the city of his martyrdom.

In August 1988, the monument commemorating the martyrs was built in the church grounds. — Joel Locsin/BM, GMA News