26 Martyrs of Japan

{{Short description|Catholics executed in Japan in 1597; made into martyrs and saints}} {{About|the executed Catholics|the 1931 Japanese film|The 26 Martyrs of Japan (film)}} {{distinguish|16 Martyrs of Japan|205 Martyrs of Japan}} {{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix=Saints |name=26 Martyrs of Japan |death_date=5 February 1597 |titles=Martyrs |feast_day=6 February |venerated_in={{ubl|Catholic Church|Anglican Church|some Lutheran Churches}} |image= Martyrdom-of-Paul-Miki-and-Companions-in-Nagasaki-(made-c1635).png |image_size=300px |caption= Martyrdom of Paul Miki and Companions in Nagasaki |death_place=Nagasaki, Japan |beatified_date=14 September 1627 |beatified_by=Pope Urban VIII |canonized_date=8 June 1862 |beatified_place=Vatican City |canonized_by=Pope Pius IX |attributes=Martyr's palm<br />Cross |patronage=Japan, persecuted Christians |major_shrine= |notable_members= }}

The {{nihongo|'''26 Martyrs of Japan'''|日本二十六聖人|Nihon Nijūroku Seijin|lead=yes}} were a group of Catholics who were executed by crucifixion on 5 February 1597, in Nagasaki, Japan. Their martyrdom is especially significant in the history of the Catholic Church in Japan.

A promising beginning to Catholic 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 between Portugal and Spain 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.

==Early Christianity in Japan==

On 15 August 1549, the Jesuit fathers Francis Xavier (later canonized by Gregory XV in 1622), Cosme de Torres, and Juan Fernández arrived in Kagoshima, Japan, from Portugal with hopes of bringing Catholicism to Japan.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06233b.htm Astrain, Antonio. "St. Francis Xavier." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 February 2019</ref> On 29 September, St. Francis Xavier visited Shimazu Takahisa, the ''daimyō'' of Kagoshima, asking for permission to build the first Catholic mission in Japan. The ''daimyō'' agreed in hopes of creating a trade relationship with Europe.

The shogunate and the 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. By the late 1500s, the government had begun to grow wary of foreign influence; the shogunate was also concerned about colonialism.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://visit-nagasaki.com/spots/detail/208 |title="Site of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan", Visit Nagasaki |access-date=2019-02-05 |archive-date=2019-02-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020337/https://visit-nagasaki.com/spots/detail/208 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Solly |first=Meilan |date=September 10, 2024 |title=Why Japan's Shogun Executed Dozens of Christians During the Great Genna Martyrdom of 1622 |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-japans-shogun-executed-dozens-christians-great-genna-martyrdom-1622-180985023/#:~:text=In%201587%2C%20Hideyoshi%20expelled%20Christian,Franciscan%20missionaries%20and%20Japanese%20converts. |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>

==Martyrdom== In the aftermath of the San Felipe incident of 1596,<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10667c.htm Kennedy, Thomas. "Nagasaki." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 6 May 2018</ref> twenty-six Catholics – four Spaniards, one Mexican<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lavrin |first=Asunción |date=July 2003 |title=Spanish American Saints and the Rhetoric of Identity, 1600-1800. By Ronald J. Morgan. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2002. Pp. x, 238. Illustrations. Notes. Works Cited. Index. $45.00 cloth. |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/tam.2003.0074 |journal=The Americas |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=121–122 |doi=10.1353/tam.2003.0074 |issn=0003-1615|url-access=subscription }}</ref>, and one Portuguese from India (all of whom were Franciscan missionaries), three Japanese Jesuits, and seventeen Japanese members of the Third 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 in modern day Kyoto. Prior to their executions by crucifixion, they were tied together with rope, paraded through towns behind carts, following a sign that declared their sentencing and proclaimed the men were criminals for the crime of "defying the regent's prohibition against preaching the Christian faith"<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Conover |first=Cornelius |last2=Conover |first2=Cory |date=2011 |title=Saintly Biography and the Cult of San Felipe de Jesús in Mexico City, 1597-1697 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41239105 |journal=The Americas |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=441–466 |issn=0003-1615}}</ref>. Along this parade, they were tortured with their left ears cut off, and subject to verbal and physical abuse from crowds, who would stone them and stuff weeds in their mouths. On 5 February 1597, they were crucified, impaled with lances, and martyred on a hill that overlooks Nagasaki city.<ref name ="Aleteia">{{cite web |title=Saint of the Day: St. Paul Miki and Companions |date= 6 February 2022|url=https://aleteia.org/daily-prayer/sunday-february-6/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814065118/https://aleteia.org/daily-prayer/sunday-february-6/ |archive-date=August 14, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Martyrs List|url=http://www1.bbiq.jp/martyrs/ListEngl.html|publisher=Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum|access-date=2010-01-10|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100214135648/http://www1.bbiq.jp/martyrs/ListEngl.html|archive-date=2010-02-14}}</ref>

After the persecution of 1597, there were about seventy sporadic instances of martyrdom until 1614.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09744a.htm Delplace, Louis. "Japanese Martyrs." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 29 March 2019{{PD-notice}}</ref> Fifty-five Catholics were martyred in Nagasaki on 10 September 1622, in what became known as the Great 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.

==Recognition== {{Further|Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument}} While there were many more martyrs, the first twenty-six missionary and convert martyrs came to be especially revered, the most celebrated of whom was Paul Miki. The Martyrs of Japan were canonized by the Catholic Church on 8 June 1862, by Pope Pius IX,<ref>[http://home.newadvent.org/cathen/11755b.htm Heckmann, Ferdinand. "Sts. Peter Baptist and Twenty-Five Companions." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 6 May 2018</ref> and are listed on the calendar as ''Sts. Paul Miki and his Companions'', commemorated on 6 February, since 5 February, the date of their death, is the feast of St. Agatha. They were included in the General Roman Calendar for the first time in 1969. Previously they were honoured locally, but no special Mass for them was included even in the ''Missae pro aliquibus locis'' (Masses for some places) section of the 1962 Roman Missal.<ref>In the [http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/books-1962/missale-romanum-1962-pdf.html 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828044030/http://www.sanctamissa.org/EN/resources/books-1962/missale-romanum-1962-pdf.html |date=2008-08-28 }}, page [143], the text goes directly from the Mass of St. Francis de Sales (January 29) to that of St. Margaret of Cortona (February 22).</ref> Some 21st-century publications based on it do have such a Mass under 13 February.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Daily Missal and Liturgical Manual|year=2008|publisher=Baronius Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-9545631-2-7|pages=1722–1723}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Roman Catholic Daily Missal|year=2004|publisher=Angelus Press|location=Kansas City, Missouri|isbn=1-892331-29-2|pages=1637–1638}}</ref>

The Church of England also celebrates the Japanese martyrs liturgically with a commemoration on 6 February.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=2021-04-02|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref> The Anglican Church in Japan (''Nippon Sei Ko Kai''), a member of the Anglican Communion, added them to its calendar in 1959 as an annual 5 February commemoration of all the martyrs of Japan and the Episcopal Church followed suit.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Martyrs of Japan, 1597 |url=https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/martyrs-of-japan/ |access-date=2022-07-21 |website=The Episcopal Church |language=en-US}}</ref> The Evangelical 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 artist Luke Hasegawa.

==List of martyrs== 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 by Pope Urban VIII, and canonized on 8 June 1862 by Pope Pius IX.<ref name=JA1>[http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Japan01.htm Martyrs of Japan (1597–1637)] at Hagiography Circle</ref>

<gallery class="center"> File:San Pedro Bautista y Blasquez.png|Saint Pedro Bautista File:Ceramic-Saint-Francisco-Blanco-1638.jpg|St. Francisco Blanco File:San Felipe de Jesus.jpg|Statue of Philip of Jesus in the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan, Mexico File:Juan Soan de Gotó-Juan de Mesa.jpg|Saint John Soan de Gotó by Juan de Mesa in Museum of Fine Arts of Seville </gallery>

===Foreign Franciscan missionaries – Alcantarines=== * Martin of the Ascension * Pedro Bautista * Philip of Jesus * Francisco Blanco * Francisco of Saint Michael * Gundisalvus (Gonsalvo) Garcia

====Japanese Franciscan tertiaries==== {{columns list|colwidth=30em| * Anthony Dainan * Bonaventure of Miyako * Cosmas Takeya * Francisco of Nagasaki * Francis Kichi * Gabriel de Duisco * Joachim Sakakibara * John Kisaka * Leo Karasumaru * Louis Ibaraki * Matthias of Miyako * Michael Kozaki * Paul Ibaraki * Paul Suzuki * Peter Sukejirō * Thomas Kozaki * Thomas Xico aka Thomas Danki<ref>{{cite web |title=Saint Thomas Xico |url=https://catholicsaints.info/saint-thomas-xico/ |website=CatholicSaints.Info |access-date=3 April 2022}}</ref> }}

===Japanese Jesuits=== * James Kisai * John Soan de Goto * Paul Miki

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category}} *[http://www.26martyrs.com/ The 26 Martyrs Museum in Nagasaki City, Japan] *[http://www.cbcj.catholic.jp/eng/ehistory/table01.htm Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan: ''Timeline of the Catholic Church in Japan''] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060303075846/http://www.pauline.or.jp/history/e-history03.html Daughters of St. Paul Convent, Tokyo, Japan: ''Prohibition of Christian religion by Hideyoshi and the 26 martyrs''] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070218122044/http://www.eonet.ne.jp/%7Enishijin/e-index.html St.Joseph's Church, Nishijin, Kyoto, Japan: ''The first Roman Catholic Church on the 26 Martyrs' pilgrimage to Nagasaki''] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20090422112412/http://www.osa-west.org/japanesemartyrs.html ''The Japanese Martyrs''] *[http://www.midwestaugustinians.org/saints/s_japanmartyrs.html Augustinian Martyrs of Japan] *[http://nx2.jp/?m=wiki&a=page_h_detail&c_wiki_id=49 Nagasaki Wiki: ''Detailed Access Information from Nagasaki Station to 26 Martyrs Monument'']

{{DEFAULTSORT:Japan, Martyrs Of}} Category:26 Martyrs of Japan Category:1597 deaths Category:1597 in Japan Category:Groups of Anglican saints Category:Executed children Category:Executed Japanese people Category:Japanese Roman Catholic saints Category:Jesuit Asia missions Category:Lists of Christian martyrs Category:Groups of Christian martyrs of the Early Modern era Category:Members of the Third Order of Saint Francis Category:Catholic martyrs of the Early Modern era Category:Roman Catholic child saints Category:Lists of saints Martyrs Category:Persecution by Buddhists Category:16th-century executions by Japan Martyrs Category:Beatifications by Pope Urban VIII Category:Canonizations by Pope Pius IX Category:Groups of Roman Catholic saints