Burgos has a new saint: the Pope canonizes Saint Manuel Ruiz

As of this morning, Burgos has a new saint on the calendar. Saint Manuel Ruiz López was canonized this Sunday, October 20, by Pope Francis along with seven other Franciscans who were murdered in 1860 during the persecution carried out by the Druze against Christians in Damascus. Overall, the Church has canonized fourteen new saints in this celebration.

The ceremony was attended by a small group of people from Burgos, who were on a trip organized by the Pilgrimage Department of Burgos, accompanied by the Saints’ representative, Cecilio Adrián Haro, and headed by the Archbishop, Mario Iseta. Gevikagogeskoa, who celebrated the mass.

Francis: “They lived according to the style of Jesus: service”

In his homily, Pope Francis dedicated a few words to the new saints, whom he said “in the eventful history of humanity, they were faithful servants, men and women, who, like Brother Manuel Ruiz López, served in martyrdom and joy ” His companions.

Francis also recalled that these new saints lived according to the style of Jesus, which is “service.” The faith and apostasy they practiced did not foster in them worldly desires or lust for power, but, on the contrary, they became servants of their brothers, constructive in doing good, steadfast in the face of difficulties, generous to the end. , he highlighted.

The Pope points out that, like the disciples and the new fourteen saints, we too can learn God’s style, which is service. “Like? Following them, walking in their footsteps and welcoming their gift of love that changes the way we think,” he explained.

Bishop Isetta: “They are champions in faith, hope and love”

For his part, the Archbishop of Burgos, Mons Mario Iseta, who participated “with emotion” in the ceremony, praying mass with the Pope, assured that “these martyrs are champions of faith, hope and love. In the faith, because they Gave up their lives for Christ’s sake, in hope because they were waiting for eternity, and in love because they forgave those who beheaded them, who martyred them.

«Today our beloved Archdiocese is proud to have the name of another saint entered in the Book of Saints. Also our seminary, where ‘Father Patience was professor of Hebrew and Greek for 10 years,’ the prelate recalled.

«We ask for the intercession of new martyrs to help us on the path of life. We want to imitate them in the strong belief that Christ is the center of our lives and the one who always inspires us. Great hope is that which sustains us in sufferings and difficulties. The great love of our lives, who helps us to love others like these martyrs. They marched to the Holy Land to preach Christ. May we always be able to bear witness to the Lord who accompanies us on the path of life. We congratulate ourselves today as the people of Burgos and today we consecrate ourselves to the new martyrs, especially the new saint, Saint Manuel Ruiz.

the missionary who died in the name of jesus christ

Manuel Ruiz was born in San Martín de las Olas in 1804. He entered the Franciscan Convent of San Miguel de las Victorias in Prigo (Cuenca) in 1825 and was ordained a priest in 1830. He was then assigned to a mission with nineteen other companions. In the Holy Land, he landed in Jaffa (Israel) on August 3, 1831 and soon went to Damascus to study Arabic. Appointed parish priest of the Church of the Transfiguration of St. Paul, he soon fell ill, so his superiors sent him to the convent of Lucca (Italy) to recover. Since he did not succeed, he returned to Burgos, where in 1847 he was appointed professor of Hebrew and Greek at the Diocesan Seminary and where they began to call him “Father Patience”.

Wishing to return to parish activity, he was appointed parish priest of Parra in the north of the province, from where he returned to Damascus in 1856. The following year he was named superior of the Franciscan community of that city, but the situation had deteriorated and much changed in the years of his absence.

Christians in Lebanon and Syria suffered violent persecution by the Druze, and in 1860 many Maronite villages were destroyed and their inhabitants murdered. The violence even reached Damascus; On July 9, Christian neighborhoods, home to about thirty thousand people, were attacked and thousands of Christians were strangled. Many took refuge in a Franciscan convent, where Father Manuel was accompanied by seven other religious. Father Manuel, who had gone to the church to evacuate the tabernacle, was forced to place his head on the altar table and was thus decapitated. His body was recovered by surviving Christians twelve days after the massacre.