The fourth annual feast day celebration of St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, will be held on Saturday, Oct. 14, at St. Lawrence Church, 319 Grayson Highway, Lawrenceville.

The event will begin with a novena at 1:30 p.m. followed by a Filipino Mass at 2 p.m. to be celebrated by Father Chito Palang. A reception and potluck dinner will follow in the gym, concluding with a dance and a program.

The 17th-century saint and martyr was born in Binondo, Manila to a Filipino mother and native Chinese father and was educated by Dominican Fathers, serving in his youth as an altar boy and sacristan. He later moved to Japan where Christians were being tortured and executed. He was captured there and first tortured in 1636, being hung by his feet and submerged in water till near death, but never lost his faith and always professed his love of God. The next year he was hung to death. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 18, 1987.