205 MARTYRS OF JAPAN - 10 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 10th of September

WELCOME!

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.

205 MARTYRS OF JAPAN 

On September 10, 1622, 9 Jesuits, 6 Dominicans, 4 Franciscans, and 6 lay Christians were put to death at the stake after witnessing the beheading of about 30 of the faithful.

[Today's feast day is a unified feast to memorialise 205 missionaries and native Japanese known to have been murdered for their faith between 1617 and 1637.

• WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARDS?]

"JESUS, RECEIVE OUR SOULS"

From December until the end of September, 1624, there were 285 martyrs. The English captain, Richard Cocks (Calendar of State Papers: Colonial East Indies, 1617-1621, p. 357) "saw 55 martyred at Miako at one time... and among them little children 5 or 6 years old burned in their mother's arms, crying out: 'Jesus, receive our souls'. 

"Many more are in prison who look hourly when they shall die, for very few turn pagans". 

PERSECUTION WENT ON UNCEASINGLY

We cannot go into the details of these horrible slaughters, the skilful tortures of Mount Unaen, the refined cruelty of the trench. 

After 1627 death grew more and more terrible for the Christians; in 1627, 123 died, during the years that followed, 65, 79, and 198. Persecution went on unceasingly as long as there were missionaries, and the last of whom we learn were 5 Jesuits and 3 seculars, who suffered the torture of the trench from March 25 to March 31, 1643. 

THE LIST OF MARTYRS WE KNOW OF

The list of martyrs we know of (name, Christian name, and place of execution) has 1648 names. 

If we add to this group the groups we learn of from the missionaries, or later from the Dutch travellers between 1649 and 1660, the total goes to 3125, and this does not include Christians who were banished, whose property was confiscated, or who died in poverty. 

A Japanese judge, Arai Hakuseki, bore witness about 1710, that at the close of the reign of Iemitzu (1650) "it was ordered that the converts should all lean on their own staff". At that time an immense number, from 200,000 to 300,000 perished. 

MARTYRS OF THE VARIOUS ORDERS

Without counting the members of Third Orders and Congregations, the Jesuits had, according to the martyrology (Delplace), 55 martyrs, the Franciscans 36, the Dominicans 38, the Augustinians 20. Pius IX and Leo XIII declared worthy of public cult 36 Jesuit martyrs, 25 Franciscans, 21 Dominicans, 5 Augustinians and 107 lay victims. 

THE CHRISTIAN FAITH WAS ALIVE

After 1632 it ceased to be possible to obtain reliable data or information which would lead to canonical beatification. 

When in 1854, Commodore Perry forced an entry to Japan, it was learned that the Christian faith, after two centuries of intolerance, was not dead. In 1865, priests of the foreign Missions found 20,000 Christians practising their religion in secret at Kiushu. 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY WAS NOT GRANTED TO THEM DURING THAT TIME

Religious liberty was not granted them by Japanese law until 1873. Up to that time in 20 provinces, 3404 had suffered for the faith in exile or in prison; 660 of these had died, and 1981 returned to their homes. In 1858, 112 Christians, among whom were two chief-baptisers, were put to death by torture. One missionary calculates that in all 1200 died for the faith. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 🎨 The Christian martyrs of Nagasaki, 17th-century Japanese painting, artist unknown)