Patron Saint of the Philippines. Catholicism reached the Philippines in the 1520s. Today Catholics comprise 85% of the population, making the Philippines the largest Christian nation in Asia.
Born in suburban Manila in 1594 to a Chinese father and a Tagala mother, St Lawrence, a married man with two sons and a daughter, was a calligrapher. Unjustly accused of murder, he escaped on a ship to Japan, on which there were also Dominican missionaries. However, at the very time in Japan, the persecution of Christians was reaching a peak. When they landed, they were found to be Christians and immediately taken to the city of Nagasaki. It was there on this day in 1637, he and 15 companions were cruelly tortured for their faith and martyred.