The faithful are invited to attend the fiesta mass in honor of the first Filipino saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz, on Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of San Lorenzo Ruiz (Binondo Church) in Binondo, Manila at 5 p.m.
Bangued, Abra Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian, national coordinator for the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate, will preside over the Eucharistic celebration.
Novena masses were offered at the church from Sept. 19 to 27. The first day of the novena on Sept.19 coincided with the 428th founding anniversary of the Binondo Church.
Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula celebrated the fourth novena mass on Sept. 22 at 5 p.m.
Popularly known as the patron saint of the Philippines, Chinese Filipinos, Filipino youth, and overseas Filipino workers, San Lorenzo was born on Nov. 28, 1594 in Binondo to a Chinese father and a Filipino mother.
He served as an altar boy at the Binondo Church and was educated by the Dominican friars for whom he worked as a stenographer (escribano).
San Lorenzo was an active member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. He was married to a Filipina who bore him two sons and a daughter.
In 1636, after being falsely accused of killing a Spaniard, he fled with Dominican missionaries to Japan at a time of intense Christian persecution. When they reached Okinawa, San Lorenzo and his 15 companions were brought to Nagasaki where they were horribly tortured. They were later brought to the Mountain of Martyrs where they were hung to die upside down in a pit.
San Lorenzo defied his tormentors by refusing to renounce his faith. When one of his tormentors asked, “If we let you live, will you renounce your faith?” His answer was, “That I will never do. I am a Christian and I will die for God. If I had a thousand lives, I will give all of them to Him and so, do with me as you please.”
According to accounts, San Lorenzo died from hemorrhage and suffocation on Sept. 29, 1637, at the age of 42. His body was said to have been cremated and his ashes were thrown into the sea.
Saint John Paul II, who beatified him at the Rizal Park in Manila, the first to be beatified outside the Vatican, called San Lorenzo “the most improbable of saints.”
He canonized the first Filipino saint at the Vatican on Oct. 18, 1987. This year marks his 37th year of sainthood.