26 Martyrs of Japan | |
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.png) Martyrdom of Paul Miki and Companions in Nagasaki | |
| Martyrs | |
| Died | 5 February 1597 Nagasaki,Japan |
| Venerated in | |
| Beatified | 14 September 1627,Vatican City byPope Urban VIII |
| Canonized | 8 June 1862 byPope Pius IX |
| Feast | 6 February |
| Attributes | Martyr's palm Cross |
| Patronage | Japan, persecuted Christians |
The26 Martyrs of Japan (Japanese:日本二十六聖人,Hepburn:Nihon Nijūroku Seijin) were a group ofCatholics who were executed bycrucifixion on 5 February 1597, inNagasaki,Japan. Theirmartyrdom is especially significant in the history of theCatholic Church in Japan.
A promising beginning toCatholic missions in Japan – with perhaps as many as 300,000 Catholics by the end of the 16th century – met complications from competition between the missionary groups, political difficulty betweenPortugal andSpain and factions within the government of Japan. Christianity was suppressed and it was during this time that the twenty-six martyrs were executed. By 1630, Catholicism had been driven underground. When Christian missionaries returned to Japan 250 years later, they found a community of "hidden Catholics" that had survived underground.
On 15 August 1549, the Jesuit fathersFrancis Xavier (later canonized byGregory XV in 1622),Cosme de Torres, andJuan Fernández arrived inKagoshima,Japan, fromPortugal with hopes of bringingCatholicism to Japan.[1] On 29 September, St. Francis Xavier visitedShimazu Takahisa, thedaimyō of Kagoshima, asking for permission to build the first Catholic mission in Japan. Thedaimyō agreed in hopes of creating a trade relationship with Europe.
Theshogunate and the imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of theBuddhist monks and help trade with Spain and Portugal. By the late 1500s, the government had begun to grow wary of foreign influence; the shogunate was also concerned about colonialism.[2] In 1587,Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered all Christians expelled from Japan on the grounds that foreigners threatened the Japanese state and that Christianity was hostile to Buddhism.[3]
In the aftermath of theSan Felipe incident of 1596,[4] twenty-six Catholics – five Spaniards, one Portuguese from India (all of whom wereFranciscanmissionaries), three JapaneseJesuits, and seventeen Japanese members of theThird Order of St. Francis, including three young boys who served as altar boys for the missionary priests – were arrested, on the orders of Hideyoshi, in January 1597. Prior to their executions by crucifixion, they were tortured, physically mutilated, and paraded through villages across Japan. On 5 February 1597, they were crucified, impaled with lances, and martyred on a hill that overlooksNagasaki city.[5][6]
After the persecution of 1597, there were about seventy sporadic instances of martyrdom until 1614.[7] Fifty-five Catholics were martyred in Nagasaki on 10 September 1622, in what became known as theGreat Genna Martyrdom. At this time Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the 19th century.
While there were many more martyrs, the first twenty-six missionary and convert martyrs came to be especially revered, the most celebrated of whom wasPaul Miki. The Martyrs of Japan werecanonized by theCatholic Church on 8 June 1862, byPope Pius IX,[8] and are listed on the calendar asSts. Paul Miki and his Companions, commemorated on 6 February, since 5 February, the date of their death, is the feast ofSt. Agatha. They were included in theGeneral Roman Calendar for the first time in 1969. Previously they were honoured locally, but no special Mass for them was included even in theMissae pro aliquibus locis (Masses for some places) section of the 1962Roman Missal.[9] Some 21st-century publications based on it do have such a Mass under 13 February.[10][11]
TheChurch of England also celebrates the Japanese martyrsliturgically with acommemoration on6 February.[12] TheAnglican Church in Japan (Nippon Sei Ko Kai), a member of theAnglican Communion, added them to its calendar in 1959 as an annual 5 February commemoration of all the martyrs of Japan and theEpiscopal Church followed suit.[13] TheEvangelical Lutheran Church in America added a commemoration on 5 February to their calendar.
The Church of the Holy Japanese Martyrs (Civitavecchia,Italy) is a Catholic church dedicated to the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki. It is decorated with artwork by Japanese artistLuke Hasegawa.
These first twenty-six Martyrs of Japan, also known as Pedro Bautista Blasquez y Blasquez and twenty-two companions, along with Paulus Miki and two companions, were beatified on 14 September 1627 byPope Urban VIII, and canonized on 8 June 1862 byPope Pius IX.[14]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
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