TWO renegade priests who served as language interpreters for the Japanese who were torturing the Christians had remorse of conscience to witness the willingness of Lorenzo Ruiz to die for his faith.
Moved to repentance “they took the first ship bound to Manila” to report the heroic death of Ruiz.
The archbishop of Manila ordered the church bells to be rung in honor of Ruiz—the first Filipino martyr; first Filipino migrant saint; first Filipino catechist saint; first Filipino missionary saint; first Filipino Dominican alumnus saint; and first Filipino father of the Filipino family.
On December 27, 1637, a solemn “Te Deum” was sung in Santo Domingo church.
Pious ‘escribano’
Lorenzo Ruiz is a Filipino-Chinese Mestizo who was born in Binondo between 1600 and 1610. His father is a Chinese and his mother is a Filipina.
In his youth, he studied in a school managed by the Dominicans. He also served as an altar boy. Because of his stylish and artistic penmanship, he was hired by the Dominicans to make official documents. He was employed as the escribano or calligrapher.
A prayerful man, he was a member of the Confraternity of the Rosary. To be a member of the confraternity, one has to have a lifelong commitment to pray the rosary, go to confession, attend Mass and take communion regularly. He was, likewise, obliged to make Eucharistic adoration.
In his adult life, he married and was a father to a son and two daughters. His normal life took a bad turn when he was implicated in the murder of a Spaniard.
He confided his problem to Fr. Domingo Gonzales, a Dominican priest. Aware of the Spanish court’s bias toward Filipinos and the desire to protect him from probable miscarriage of justice, Father Gonzales decided that he join the secret missionaries to Japan.
In June 1636 the group composed of three Dominican priests—Antonio Gonzales, Guillermo Courtet and Miguel Aozaraza—a Japanese priest, Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz; a layman named Lazaro; a leper and a few others sailed for Japan, according to A.J.M. and J.K. Mausolfe in Saint Companions for Each Day.
To evangelize Japan
As soon as the group landed in Japan, they were arrested. A violent persecution against Christians was being enforced by Emperor Tokugawa Yemitsu to prevent the spread of Christianity in Japan.
The royalty had learned from the martyrdom of Christians of Nagasaki in 1597. While hanging on the cross, the Christians were allowed to preach to the crowd. There were about 20,000 Christians singing, “Benedictus”, “Te Deum”, “Salve Regina”, etc., praying the rosary and cheering for their martyrdom. Two Jesuit priest provided courage and comfort before they were pierced with a lance.
The Japanese officials realized there were more conversion to the faith. Thus, with the objective that the captives apostatize, tortures of untold sufferings were invented, according to Fr. Edgardo M. Arellano in The Blood of Martyrs of Asia and Africa.
Ruiz and companions were subjected to these tortures—the water torture and upside-down over a pit. Those who would not apostatize would be decapitated after three days.
The improbable saint
The group of missionaries to Japan marched to their death. They were detained and imprisoned in Nagasaki to be tortured for months and martyred on a hill overlooking the Bay of Nagasaki.
The 500 buckets of water they were forced to drink were squeezed out of their stomachs by two men rolling over their stomachs big rounded wooden trunks. The water torture, according to Arellano, is enough to mangle one’s stomach and other internal organs causing terrible pains in the stomach, kidney and lungs, excruciating headaches, painful throats, labored breathing and teary eyes.
In the needle torture, long needles used in embroidery work were inserted under the nails. Then they were banged on the wall. Each finger was hammered and played, like guitar strings. The upside down in the pit torture was the last ordeal. The Japanese would even fill the pit with human waste, so that when the person is lowered, he would inhale the obnoxious smell.
Hung upside down, the heart pumps blood that does not circulate through the veins so the muscles are hardened. For lack of air, blood comes out of the ears, eyes, nose and mouth.
Painful cramps drove the victims to groan endlessly, loss sanity and die of heart failure.
Many priests and Christians who went through this torture apostatized. Father Ferreira, a European priest who apostatized 20 minutes, after this method of torture was assigned to question the prisoners with a Japanese interpreter. It was noted by Arellano that Fr. Vicente de la Cruz, the Japanese priest, apostatized and Fr. Antonio Gonzales almost did because of a severe headache, and injured feet. The three Dominican priests who survived were beheaded.
It was written that a tormentor asked Ruiz, “If we grant you life, would you renounce your faith?” Lorenzo answered: “That I will never do, because I am a Christian, and I shall die for God and for Him I would give many thousands of lives if I had them. And so do with me as you please.”Lorenzo died from bleeding and suffocation. His body was cremated and the ashes were thrown into the sea.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II during his papal visit in Manila on February 18, 1981, the first beatification ceremony outside the Vatican. On October 28, 1987, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II, describing him as “the most improbable of saints.”
On this historic event, the pope said: “God waited 350 years to give us this saint. It is the heroism that he demonstrated as a lay witness to the faith, which is very important in today’s world…. Life without faith would have been without value…he proved that sanctity and heroism are there for anybody and the final victory is made to size for each one of us.”
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons