Angel Thoughts
Who has visited the “Big Apple” or New York city and dropped by the magnificent and historic St. Patrick Cathedral to attend a mass or just kneel down and pray?
If you are Filipino and a Christian, we are sure you would have been a visitor to the magnificent St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan.
It is the seat of the Archbishop of New York as well as a parish church. The cathedral occupies a city block bounded by Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, 50th Street, and 51st Street, directly across from Rockefeller Center. Designed by James Renwick Jr., it is the largest Gothic Revival Catholic cathedral in North America.
According to Spotting History, the cathedral was constructed starting in 1858 to accommodate the growing Archdiocese of New York and to replace St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. Work was halted in the early 1860s during the American Civil War. The cathedral was completed in 1878 and dedicated on May 25, 1879. The archbishop’s house and rectory were added in the early 1880s, both designed by James Renwick Jr., and the spires were added in 1888.
The Diocese of New York was founded by Pope Pius VII in 1808. St. Patrick’s was founded shortly afterward to serve New York City’s small, but growing, Catholic population, which could no longer fit in St. Peter’s Church.
Now, why am I so interested all of a sudden in St. Patrick’s Cathedral? Because the first Filipino-born saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz will be enshrined in St Patrick’s this coming October 5. He was born in Binondo, Manila, on November 28, 1594, to a Chinese father and a Filipino mother who were both Catholic. His father taught him Chinese while his mother taught him Tagalog.
In 1636, he was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard, which forced him to seek refuge on a boat bound for Japan with some Dominican Priests. At that time, the Tokugawa Shogunate was persecuting Christians. They were arrested upon arrival and thrown in jail and tortured. San Lorenzo died on September 29 1637, at 42 years old, of blood loss from the torture.
Latin Missionary Accounts that were sent to Manila, recorded his last words – Ego Catholicus sum et animo prompto paratoque pro Deo mortem obibo. Si mille vitas haberem, cunctas ei offerrem. (I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God; Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.)
San Lorenzo’s beatification ceremony was officiated by Pope John Pail II during his Papal visit to the Philippines in 1981. This was the first beatification ceremony held outside the Vatican in history. Then, in 1987 he was canonized, also by Pope John Paul II. The miracle which supported his canonization was the healing of Cecilia Alegria Policarpio of Calinog, Iloilo, of Brain Atrophy at the age of two, when her family and supporters prayed to San Lorenzo Ruiz for intercession.
San Lorenzo’s statue which will be enshrined at the St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Oct. 25 was the gift of then ambassador Antonio Cabangon Chua to the late Jaime Cardinal Sin. This was then donated to St. Patrick by the cardinal to be venerated by Filipino Catholics in New York.
Filipino priest Fr. Erno Diaz of the Sta Patrick’s Cathedral who takes care of the Filipino community in New York was in Manila recently. He told us that some 300 Filipino priests from all over the USA will gather in St. Patrick’s cathedral on Oct. 25 to witness the enthronement of San Lorenzo Ruiz.