Founded: Sept. 8, 1991
Location: 747 Meadow Pass Road, Walnut
San Gabriel Region: Deanery 12

"Nothing is impossible for those who truly love God." This faith-imbued motto (and parish banner) epitomizes the spirit of this young parish and also the ardor and fidelity of its patron saint. One of five parishes established since 1990 in the archdiocese, St. Lorenzo Ruiz combines a rich historical background with the invigorating growth of the east San Gabriel Valley.

Gabrielino Indians inhabited the land in the 18th century when cattle grazed on the 24 Ranchos of San Gabriel Mission. Walnut trees (recognized as the oldest tree food known to mankind, dating to 7000 B.C.) were native to the area; Rancho de Nogales was also called Ranch of the Walnut Trees (nogales is Spanish for walnut).

The spiritual legacy of the patron saint dates from the 17th century and represents a unique attribute of the parish. Lorenzo (also known as Laurence) Ruiz was born in Manila between 1600 and 1610. His father was Chinese and his mother a native Tagalog, both Catholics. Married with three children, Lorenzo became a skilled calligrapher and worked in a Dominican parish as a document transcriber.

In 1636, however, he was unjustly accused in a murder and sought help from the Dominicans. To avoid prosecution in a politically charged situation, the Spanish Friars sent him, four priests and another layman to seek asylum in Taiwan. However, the group landed instead in Nagasaki, Japan, where Christian persecution was intense. For more than a year the group was severely tortured while being tied upside down and dropped in a well where sharp stakes lined the bottom.

Finally, when confronted once more with death if he did not renounce his faith, he said: "That I will never do. I am happy to die for God. If I have a thousand lives, I will offer them to God." Lorenzo and 14 companions were gruesomely tortured for several days; he was the last to die on September 29, 1637. Pope John Paul II beatified him in Manila in 1981 (the first person so honored outside of the Vatican) and canonized him in Rome in 1987.

"The Lord gives us saints at the right time," the pope said, "and God waited 350 years to give us this saint."

The Walnut parish was first known as "St. Martha's Mission" in 1989, with services held at the Collegewood School near Mt. San Antonio College. Population growth soon demanded a larger facility and the following year parishioners found a warehouse at the Vogel Business Center and eagerly converted the space into a "Church." They swept, painted and even installed air conditioning.

In April 1990, 250 families attended their first Mass and soon after Father Dennis Vellucci was named administrator of the "Walnut Catholic Mission." Archbishop Roger Mahony named the Rhode Island native as the founding pastor and placed the parish under the patronage of St. Lorenzo Ruiz.

For nine years the enterprising pastor shepherded the congregation through many changes and challenges that resulted in the blessing of a $2.3 million, 650-seat multipurpose facility on March 17, 1996, witnessed by nearly 2,000 parishioners. The parish's 14.4 acre hilltop complex also included a religious education building, parish office and rectory.

At the ceremony Father Vellucci observed that "using that warehouse for all those years forced us to really think of one another's needs and learn to work together." The founding pastor, a talented musician, established (and directed) five choirs during his time, before he died in 2002 of heart failure at age 56.

Father Michael Carroll, a native of County Cork, Ireland, headed the parish for five years. Besides parish work at St. Anselm and Santa Teresita, he taught at St. Michael's High School and coordinated finances for Catholic Girls High School. His primary ministry was in hospital work, serving as head chaplain at St. Mary Medical Center, Long Beach. At present Father Carroll is in residence at St. Julie Billiart Church in Newbury Park.

The current pastor, Father Antonio Astudillo, was born Sept. 25, three days before St. Lorenzo Ruiz's feast day, and ordained in the Philippines where he spent his first 10 years in ministry (and was once imprisoned there for his social justice activities). Incardinated for the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1994, he served 10 years as pastor at Holy Innocents, Long Beach, before coming to the Walnut parish named for his homeland's first canonized saint.

"Life without faith would have been without value," Pope John Paul II said of St. Lorenzo Ruiz. "Sanctity and heroism are there for anybody and final victory is made to size for each one of us."