A Chinese Filipino, he became his country's protomartyr after his execution in Japan by the Tokugawa shogunate during its persecution of Japanese Christians in the 17th century.

Lorenzo Ruiz was a Filipino born in Binondo, Manila, on 28 November 1594,[1] to a Chinese father and a Tagalog mother who were both Catholic.

[3][4][5] The Tokugawa Shogunate was persecuting Christians because they feared that the Spanish invaded the Philippines through using religion by the time Lorenzo had arrived in Japan.

The method, alleged to have been extremely painful, had the victim bound; one hand was always left free so that the individual may signal their desire to recant, leading to their release.

His last words were: Latin: Ego Catholicus sum et animo prompto paratoque pro Deo mortem obibo.

Lorenzo was canonised by Pope John Paul II on October 18, 1987, among the 16 Martyrs of Japan, making him the first Filipino saint.

She was diagnosed with the condition shortly after birth and was treated at University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center.