This statue of San Lorenzo Ruiz sits in our school foyer.
It was donated by the San Lorenzo Ruiz Prayer Group on the occassion
of our official school blessing on Sept. 28, 2000.The San Lorenzo Ruiz statue was meticulously created by the sculptor: Omel Masalunga

San Lorenzo Ruiz was born in Binondo, Manila between 1600 and 1610. His father was Chinese and his mother was Filipino. As a young man, he served at the Binondo church run by Dominican priests as a "sacristan", an altar server. From the Dominican priests he learned catechism and how to speak Spanish. He later became an "escribano" or notary for the church. He was an active member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, an organization devoted to the Blessed Virgin and organized in the Philippines in 1587.

In 1636 San Lorenzo was a witness to a crime in Manila. Fearing that he was not likely to receive justice in the courts, San Lorenzo decided to leave the Philippines and go with Dominican missionaries who were leaving for Japan. In Japan at that time, there was widespread persecution of Christians. Missionaries and those converted to Christianity were jailed and even put to death. Those who renounced their faith were spared. But thousands of Christians chose death rather than renounce their belief in God.

One of the forms of punishment imposed on Christians was "hanging in the pit" on the hills of Nagasaki. The martyrs' feet were tied to a beam, his body hanged upside down and his head occupying the mound of the pit. San Lorenzo went through this agonizing punishment when he refused to renounce his faith. San Lorenzo said: "I am a Christian and I will remain a Christian even to the point of death. Only to God will I offer my life. Even if I had a thousand lives, I would still offer them to him. This is the reason why I came to Japan, to leave my native land as a Christian and to die here as a Christian, offering my life to God alone."

Lorenzo Ruiz was proclaimed "Blessed" in February 1981 and was canonized and declared a "Saint" on October 18, 1987. His feast day is September 28.