Today is the feast of St. Laurence Ruiz, layman and protomartyr of the Philippines, and Companions, (1600 - 1637). Laurence was a sympathetic character; a mixed-race guy, altar boy (I'm amazed at how many [male, of course] saints have been altar boys), sacristan, husband and father of three children (two boys and a girl). He was an artist (calligrapher) and a fugitive from justice. He ran away from the Spanish authorities in the Philippines who accused him of murder and he escaped with a bunch of Dominican priests on a boat. Any port in a storm, I guess. He didn't realize until it was too late that the boat was headed for Japan, a place of almost certain death for Christians. He could have gone on to Formosa (Taiwan) but he chose to stay with the Fathers.
In Japan they were soon all captured as Catholics and put to the torture. Laurence was subject to the so-called "water torture" (where he was force-fed large quantities of water and then pressed with a board, making the water forcibly spurt out of every orifice) and the classic -- and brutal -- bamboo shoots under the fingernails. He actually caved under torture and apostatized. But he repented and reaffirmed his faith bravely. He and four others were torturously killed (hung upside down in a pit until they expired). He went down in a blaze of glory and brought great honor to his home country. St. Lawrence Ruiz, pray for us.
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