The documents also included testimonies of alleged miracles that may have occurred through the intercession of Ruíz-Abad before the opening of the canonization process. In one case, a student at Holy Spirit Academy in the city of Laoag had been seriously sick and said she was miraculously cured after praying to the Filipina teenager.
During the ceremony, Ruíz-Abad’s first relic was also unveiled, which consisted of a reliquary with a small piece of cloth that came from her clothing.
Ruíz-Abad, who died in August 1993, had a great impact through her devotion to God and her acts of charity despite suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an incurable heart disease that was diagnosed with when she was 10 years old.
Thirty years after her death, in July 2023, the formal request to open an investigation into the life of the Filipina teenager was approved by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
The CBCP previously noted that Ruiz-Abad could serve as a “good model of piety and fortitude” for today’s youth.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.