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 average husband and father was accused of murder.

The local justice system being notoriously corrupt and unreliable, fellow church members arranged for him to leave the country.

This average husband and father 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, but 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."

They were all hung upside down and made to bleed slowly to death.

Lawrence was the last to die, days later, on September 29, 1637 outside Nagasaki.

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

(Adapted from an earlier post)