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This is a list of Filipino saints, beati, venerables, and Servants of God by the Catholic Church. Majority of these men and women of religious life were born, died, or lived within the Philippine archipelago.
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Ferdinand Magellan's expedition of 1521 to the islands included Catholic priests and missionaries among the crew. Some Catholic missionaries became the explorers of the native lands while converting and coercing the Indios towards Christianity. Because of the Spanish colonization started by Miguel López de Legazpi, Christianity was introduced in Cebu, which remains a bastion of the Catholic faith in the Philippines.
Several Filipino Catholics have been considered for sainthood over the past centuries. Most are from the 20th century and later.
The first Filipino canonized as saint was Lorenzo Ruiz, a married lay Dominican member of the Confraternity of the Rosary. Ruiz died a martyr of faith in Nagasaki, as Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate regularly conducted anti-clerical campaigns and widespread persecution of Christians. Ruiz was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Manila in 1981, and later canonized at St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, in 1987. 25 years later, the title of “Saint” was bestowed upon another martyr, Pedro Calungsod, martyred on Guam. He was canonized in October 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
