BL.SIMON TAKEDA GOHYOE, MARTYR - 9 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 9th of December

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. SIMON TAKEDA GOHYOE, MARTYR

The Japanese samurai officer Simon Takeda Gohyoe, a virtuous Catholic, was condemned to death by the Japanese prince he had served for having refused to participate in a pagan ritual.

On the night before his execution, Simon kept a vigil prostrate before his favourite image of Christ, a depiction of the Ecce homo (Christ crowned with thorns standing before Pilate).

The beheading was to take place in his own home.

THEY PRAYED TOGETHER

On the morning of December 9, 1603, he together with his wife (Blessed) Agnes, his mother (Blessed) Joanna, and three fellow Catholics, all of whom were also condemned to die, recited together an act of contrition and said thrice the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

Taking the hand of his wife, Simon told her, “It is that hour of earthly separation. I go before you and show you the way by which you yourself must go to Paradise. I go to beseech God for you and hope that you will follow in my footsteps.”

THE SIX CATHOLICS WENT IN PROCESSION WITH A PROCESSIONAL CROSS AND CANDLES

The six Catholics went in procession with a processional cross and candles to the hall where Simon was to die. After praying once more before his Ecce homo image of Christ, Simon, having given his rosary beads to his wife, was beheaded.

“Blest beyond measure by the love of God, all creation sings the glory of his name.”