St. Paul Miki and Companions ~ Page 2

�t.BORN 1562 (ST P. PAULaul MIKI); DIED 1597 �i kiaffluent military MARTYRS leader, Miki Han- FEAST DAY: FEBRUARY 6 dayu, and a member an� Com�a nionsof the Japanese HE NATION OF JAPAN first heard the Gospel upper class. A when the Jesuit St. Francis Xavier arrived catechist and Tin 1549. In the two years before his recall to an eloquent India, he converted and baptized more than preacher, he seven hundred Japanese. Jesuits, Franciscans, professed his faith in and others followed up. Within forty years, the Gospel, thanked God there were about two hundred thousand Japa- for the blessing of martyr- nese Catholics and two hundred fifty Catholic dom, proclaimed Chris- churches, mostly on Kyushu, the southernmost tianity as the only path of the four main islands of Japan. to salvation and happiness, In 1587 the regent of Japan, Hideyoshi, or- forgave his persecutors, and KERRIS PAUL dered all missionaries to leave Japan. Many did hoped that his blood would fall on his “fellow not obey the order. In July 1596, a ship from men as a fruitful rain.” Another martyr prayed the Philippines was driven onto the coast of Ja- the Our Father and the Hail Mary, one prayed pan. The ship was confiscated and the crew and Psalm 112, and others simply prayed, “Jesus! passengers, including several missionaries, im- Mary!” They died by means of simultaneous prisoned. The Spanish captain of this ship — execution with lances. perhaps out of bravado — said that the mission- Fourteen of the twenty-six men and boys that aries were there only to make a later conquest were martyred were Japanese Franciscan ter- of Japan easier. This infuriated Hideyoshi, who tiaries (laymen observing the Franciscan rule). put under house arrest those at the Franciscan Seven were catechists: Cosmas Takeya, Fran- monastery at Myako (now Kyoto), on the main cis of Myako, Joachim Sakakibaram, Michael island of Honshu. On December 30, they were Kasaki, Paul Suzuki, Peter Sukejiro, and Thom- transferred to prison. Four days later, their ears as Dauki. Five were laymen: Caius Francis, a were cropped and they were paraded through soldier; Gabriel de Duisco, the son of the por- Kyoto and then marched through much of Ja- ter; John Kisaka, a silk-weaver; Matthias of Mi- pan as a way of terrorizing other Catholics into yako; and Ventura, who had left the faith and abandoning their faith. Far from being cowed, then re-converted. Finally, two of the Francis- the captives sang hymns. They finally arrived at can tertiaries were altar boys: Antony Deynan, Nagasaki, where on February 5 they were taken thirteen, and Thomas Kasaki, son of Michael, to a hill overlooking the city and tied to crosses fifteen. Three additional Franciscan tertiaries with ropes, chains, and iron collars around their were Korean-born: catechists Leo Karasumaru, necks. Each of the twenty-six crosses was then his brother Paul Ibaraki, and their nephew Lou- lifted in the air and dropped into holes about is Ibaraki, a twelve-year-old altar boy. In addi- four feet apart. tion to Paul Miki, two other martyrs were Jap- Paul Miki, a Jesuit brother, was the son of an anese catechists: James Kisai, and John Soan The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (parish, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. “A catechist and an eloquent preacher, he thanked God for the blessing of martyrdom, forgave his persecutors, and hoped that his blood would fall on his ‘ fellow men as a fruitful rain.’” de Goto, both of whom became Jesuit lay Japanese (Catholics and supporters) who brothers while imprisoned. Finally, the had entered a fortress a little east of Na- martyrs included six missionaries: the gasaki to protest the persecution were all Spanish Franciscan priests Peter Bap- butchered. Martyrdoms of missionaries, tist, Francis Blanco, and some incredibly cruel, continued until Martin Loynaz de 1648 when every priest was dead, in- Aguirre; a Mex- cluding those who had been caught ican Francis- secretly trying to enter Japan, or can ready for had been driven out. ordination, When missionar- Philip of Jesus; ies returned to Japan and two Francis- late in the 1860s, they can lay brothers, Spaniard discovered with as- Francis of Saint Michael and Gon- tonishment and joy salvo Garcia, born in India. thousands of secret Hideyoshi’s death the following year Christians in Nagasaki. ended any immediate follow-up. This They were the living repre- changed a decade and a half later when sentatives of a faithful rem- the shogun of Japan, Tokugawa, abolished nant who had, in the face Catholicism. His heirs embarked on a pe- of one of the worst perse- riod of intensifying persecution, resulting cutions in Christian histo- in imprisonments and the deaths of hun- ry, secretly kept the faith dreds of missionaries and Japanese of all for over two hundred years, ages, from very young children to women waiting for the return of their over eighty, by burning or roasting alive, priests and the opportunity to crucifixion, or beheading, by 1637. In that openly profess their faith and year, approximately thirty-seven thousand receive the sacraments. JUPITERIMAGES St. Paul Miki and Companions ~ Page 2.

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