Biography of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz

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Biography of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz Lorenzo Ruiz is also known as Laurentius Ruiz de Manila or San Lorenzo de Manila. San Lorenzo was born in Binondo, Manila in about the 1600’s. The day he was baptized is unsure, but it is certain that he was baptized between 1600 and 1610. Lorenzo served as a task boy in the community and church of a district in Manila, and he was an altar boy and clerk-sacristan at Binondo convent during his youth. He was relied on to transcribe validation and marriage documents into church’s certified accounts by friars since he was skilled in penmanship. Also, he learned catechism and the Spanish language while living with the priests. From the descendant of a Chinese father and a Tagala mother, Lorenzo Ruiz married a Tagala woman, Rosario, and had three children, two sons and a daughter, whose descendants are residents of the same area where Lorenzo was raised. The Ruiz family lived a mostly peaceable, spiritual and satisfied life. San Lorenzo Ruiz was the kind of man who would die for God and religion; everyone could trust San Ruiz because he was an active member of the Marian confraternity. Ruiz was a layman who functioned as a calligrapher from the Dominican community of Binondo, Manila. In 1636, Ruiz was charged with murder, so the Spanish friars sent Lorenzo on an expedition outside the Philippines. Ruiz left his wife and children behind in the Philippines while he went on his journey. The trip to escape the burden with manslaughter was led by Fray Domingo Ibanez headed for Okinawa, Japan on June 10, 1636. In Japan, feudalism was fanning the flames of Christian persecution, and the Japanese leaders wanted to halt the Christian movement. Therefore, Lorenzo Ruiz, Fray Domingo, and the other missionaries were arrested immediately when they reached Japanese soil and taken for trial. Lorenzo Ruiz was persuaded to deny his faith in God, but he
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