BL. JOACHIM MINE SUKEDAYU, MARTYR - 17 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 17th of May 

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. JOACHIM MINE SUKEDAYU, MARTYR

A native of Japan, Blessed Joachim Mine Sukedayu was one of an untold number of Catholics who in the first half of the seventeenth century suffered martyrdom for their faith at the hands of Japan’s pagan regime.

HE WAS CONDEMNED FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN

Blessed Joachim, born in 1567, had been serving as a magistrate in the city of Kuchinotsu when he was condemned to die in “the Mouth of Hell”, a much-feared sulphurous volcanic crater on Mount Unzen.

Upon arriving at the crater on 17th May 1627, Blessed Joachim was skinned alive and then scalded with water from the crater.

HIS FORTITUDE IN PATIENTLY UNDERGOING THIS ORDEAL ENRAGED HIS PERSECUTERS

His fortitude in patiently undergoing this ordeal so enraged his persecutors that they tore his sides with knives and poured sulfphurous water into the open wounds. He was then thrown into the sulphurous crater. Blessed Joachim was sixty years old when he died for his faith (in 1627).

“O God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the people praise you.”