Just a regular guy

Lawrence had a wife and three kids. He had a modest job as a document specialist and he went to Church regularly.

Out of nowhere, this regular guy was accused of murder. The local justice system was notoriously corrupt and unreliable, so fellow church members arranged for him to leave the country.

This regular guy soon found himself on a ship with four priests and a leper. To make matters even more uncomfortable, after the ship left port, Lawrence discovered that they were going to a distant country where Christians were routinely tortured and killed

Sure enough, not long after their arrival, Lawrence and his companions were arrested. They were cruelly tortured for days. They reaffirmed their faith in Christ and rejected the offer of release.

Lawrence said, "I'm 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 here in Japan, to leave my native land as a Christian and die here as a Christian, offering my life to God alone."

Lawrence and his companions were hung upside down and bled slowly to death. Days later, Lawrence was the last to die, on September 29, 1637 outside Nagasaki.

Pope John Paul II beatified Lawrence Ruiz and his companions nearly 350 years later in Lawrence’s home country of the Philippines. He canonized them on October 18, 1987.