FR. FIDEL Villarroel, O.P, UST archivist, emphasized the need to foster the students’ awareness on the martyrdom of St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his Dominican companions in UST Martyrs: Dominican Gift to the Philippine Church last Sept. 28 at the Ecclesiastical Faculties Martyrs’ Hall.
“Some of the students don’t even know who these martyrs are. I would propose to the UST administration to make them better known to the student body by printing stampitas and disseminating them,” Fr. Villarroel said.
Aside from St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, Villaroel also related the lives of the Dominican martyrs— Fr. Lucas del Espiritu Santo, Fr. Domingo Ibañez de Erquicia, Fr. Guillaume Courtet, Fr. Tomas Hioji de S. Jacinto, Fr. Antonio Gonzales, Bishop Jose Ma. Diaz Sanjurjo, Fr. Vicente Liem dela Paz, Bishop Domingo Henares, and Fr. Pedro Almato.
The Thomasian martyrs, who were beatified in 1981 and canonized in 1989 with St. Lorenzo Ruiz although they were martyred at different times and places in Japan, were connected with UST at one time either as students or professors. L. C. L. de Guia and K. T. Valle
