Wikipedia

205 Martyrs of Japan

Not to be confused with 16 Martyrs of Japan or 26 Martyrs of Japan.

The Martyrs of Japan (日本の殉教者, Nihon no junkyōsha) were Christian missionaries and followers who were persecuted and executed for their faith in Japan, mostly during the Tokugawa shogunate period in the 17th century.

205 Martyrs of Japan
Painting of the Nagasaki Martyrs
Martyrs
BornUnknown
DiedJapan
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Anglican Church
Lutheran Church
Beatified7 May 1867, Vatican City by Pope Pius IX
Feast10 September

Background edit

 
The Christian martyrs of Nagasaki. 16th/17th-century Japanese painting.

Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many daimyōs in Kyushu. The shogunate and imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. However, the Shogunate was also wary of colonialism, seeing that the Spanish had taken power in the Philippines, after converting the population. It soon met resistance from the highest office holders of Japan.[1] Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect. Beginning in 1587 with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s ban on Jesuit missionaries, Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity.[2] Many Christians were executed by burning at the stake in Nagasaki.[3] After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620, it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming hidden Christians (隠れキリシタン, kakure kirishitan), while others lost their lives. Only after the Meiji Restoration, was Christianity re-established in Japan.

The first group of martyrs, known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (1597), were canonized by the Church in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.[4]

Martyrdom edit

The persecution of Missionaries and Christian followers continued after the martyrdom of the twenty-six individuals in 1597. Jesuit fathers and others who had successfully fled to the Philippines wrote reports which led to a pamphlet that was printed in Madrid in 1624 "A Short Account of the Great and Rigorous Martyrdom, which last year (1622) was suffered in Japan by One Hundred and Eighteen Martyrs'.[5]

Through the promulgation of decree on martyrdom, Pope Pius IX declared these martyrs venerable on 26 February 1866 and subsequently beatified them on 26 May 1867.[6] This group is also known as Alfonso Navarrette Benito, Perdo of Ávila, Carlo Spinola, Ioachim Díaz Hirayama, Lucia de Freitas, and 200 companions.[7]

Ordained Martyrs edit

Augustinian and Augustinian Recollect edit

Foreign Missionaries edit

Japanese Missionary

  • Blessed Thomas of Saint Augustine Jihyoe aka "Kintsuba" (OSA) - 6 November 1637

Dominican edit

Foreign Missionaries edit

Japanese edit

Franciscan – Alcantarines edit

Foreign Missionaries edit

Japanese edit

Franciscan – Observant edit

Foreign Missionaries edit

Japanese edit

Jesuit edit

Foreign Missionaries edit

Japanese edit

Martyred Laity edit

Augustinian Laity edit

Japanese Religious Brother edit

Japanese Oblates edit

Japanese Tertiaries edit

Dominican Laity edit

Foreign Missionaries – Confraternity of the Holy Rosary edit

Japanese – Confraternity of the Holy Rosary edit

Japanese Tertiaries edit

Franciscan Laity edit

Japanese Tertiaries edit

Catechist Laity edit

Japanese edit

Christian Laity edit

Japanese edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Brodrick, James (1952). Saint Francis Xavier (1506–1552). London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd. p. 558.
  2. ^ Jansen, Marius (2000). The Making of Modern Japan. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674003347.
  3. ^ MARTYRS OF JAPAN († 1597-1637) (poz. 10). Archived from the original on November 23, 2021. Retrieved March 22, 2011.
  4. ^ Martyrs of Japan (1597–1637) at Hagiography Circle
  5. ^ Seitz, Don C. (October 1927). "The Nagasaki Martyrs". The Catholic Historical Review. 13 (3). Catholic University of America Press: 503–509. JSTOR 25012455.
  6. ^ Martyrs of Japan (1597–1637) at Hagiography Circle
  7. ^ Martyrs of Japan at the All Saints & Martyrs website
  8. ^ De Sousa 2019, pp. 122–124, 160–161.
  9. ^ a b c d e De Sousa 2019, pp. 122–124.
  10. ^ De Sousa 2019, pp. 160–161.
  11. ^ De Sousa 2019, pp. 154–155.
  12. ^ a b De Sousa 2019, pp. 158–159.
  13. ^ a b c De Sousa 2019, pp. 122–124, 162–163.

Sources edit

External links edit

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