About Us
About Our School
Lorenzo was born in Manila, in the Philippines, around 1600. Lorenzo had a Chinese father and a Filipino mother. During his youth, Lorenzo learned Spanish from the Dominican priests, whom he served as altar boy and sacristan. He was exceptionally gifted with beautiful penmanship and became a professional calligrapher, earning the title of escribano—one who transcribes baptismal, confirmation and marriage documents into the Church's official books. Lorenzo and his wife had three children, two sons and a daughter. Lorenzo was called by God to go to Japan to do mission work, so he journeyed to Japan to teach the people there about Jesus. He had not been in Japan very long when he was arrested. He was asked to deny his faith or face death. Even when he was tortured in very painful ways, he would not deny Jesus as Lord, saying, "I will never do it. I am a Catholic and happy to die for God. If I have a thousand lives to offer, I will offer them to God." His feast day is September 28, the day he became a martyr for his faith in 1636. Lorenzo Ruiz is the first Filipino saint and the first Filipino to be martyred for his faith in Jesus.
Sources: slr.ycdsb.ca/ourschool/namesake and saintofthedayforkids.com
History
St. Paul's Roman Catholic School Division was formally established in 1911 at the request of Catholic parents who desired that their children receive a Catholic faith-based education. From a modest beginning of 69 students in the basement of St. Paul's Church, the school division now encompasses over 17,000 students in seven high schools, 43 elementary schools, two associate schools, and a high school tutorial program.
Following school amalgamations in 2006, the school division grew to include Biggar, Humboldt and communities surrounding Saskatoon. Since that time, it has maintained its legal name of St. Paul's RCSSD # 20 and has also adopted a common name of Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS).
Catholic school divisions were created in the cities of Martensville in 2010 and Warman in 2014. Each of these divisions then amalgamated with GSCS shortly after their formation.
St. Lorenzo Ruiz Catholic School opened in September of 2017.
It is part of public-private partnership (P3) initiative that will see 18 schools built in nine joint-use facilities across Saskatchewan (four in Saskatoon, one in Martensville, one in Warman and three in Regina).
School and project news:
School design and webcam
Joint-Use Schools Project updates
Sod turning (Sept 11/15)
Site blessing (Sept 16/15
