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Biography

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Darwin Ramos was born on 17 December 1994 in Pasay, Metro Manila, in the Philippines, into a family living in extreme poverty in an urban slum. His father struggled with alcoholism, and the household often could not meet basic needs. From a very young age Darwin worked on the streets of Manila as a scavenger and waste picker, collecting recyclable refuse to sell, and he also begged or sold newspapers. He frequently did this together with a younger sister. Street life exposed him to hunger, insecurity, and the dangers commonly faced by working and homeless children in the Philippine capital at the turn of the twenty-first century.

In 2006 he was taken into the care of the Tulay ng Kabataan Foundation, a Catholic organization devoted to rescuing and educating street children in Manila. Around that time he was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive genetic disease that weakens the muscles and typically leads to death in adolescence or early adulthood. At the foundation he received shelter, schooling, medical attention, and religious instruction. As the illness advanced he lost mobility and became dependent on others for daily care, yet staff and fellow children later testified that he remained unusually cheerful, grateful, and attentive to those around him.

Darwin’s reputation for holiness rests on the way he lived with pain and limitation. Those who knew him described a simple but intense Catholic faith: he prayed, received the sacraments, and spoke of offering his sufferings in union with Christ. He was remembered for expressions of thanks even during medical procedures and for encouraging other children in the homes. Promoters of his memory have presented him as a witness to the dignity of street children and of people living with degenerative disease, and as an example of spiritual maturity in one so young and so afflicted.

He died on 23 September 2012 at the age of seventeen from complications of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. After his death, accounts of his patience and faith circulated among Filipino Catholics and among those associated with work for street children. A cause for beatification was introduced; the Holy See granted a nihil obstat, and he received the title Servant of God. A diocesan inquiry into his life and virtues followed. He has not been beatified or canonized, and no official feast day or patronages have been assigned. He remains a figure of local devotion in the Philippines, especially among those who work with the urban poor and with the sick.

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