BLESSEDS MICHAEL ICHINOSE SUKIZAYEMON, JOHN MUTSUNOO CHOZABURO, AND PETER SAWAGUCHI KUHYOYE, MARTYRS - 28 SEPTEMBER
ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 28th of September
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.
BLESSEDS MICHAEL ICHINOSE SUKIZAYEMON, JOHN MUTSUNOO CHOZABURO, AND PETER SAWAGUCHI KUHYOYE, MARTYRS
In 1614 Japan’s pagan shogun ruler Iyeyasu issued an edict ordering all foreign missionaries to depart. The priests who thereafter remained in Japan or entered the country risked their lives to do so. Michael Ichinose Sukizayemon, a native Japanese member of the Augustinian Hermits’ Third Order, assisted the Augustinian priests in their dangerous labours. On September 28, 1630, Michael was beheaded in Nagasaki for having given lodging to the missionaries. Five other Third Order Augustinians died with him, including John Mutsunoo Chozaburo, a lay catechist who had assisted the Mexican-born Augustinian priest and future martyr (Blessed) Bartholomew Gutierrez. Another of the martyrs, Peter Sawaguchi Kuhyoye, who had taken the name Peter of the Mother of God, was like Michael condemned to death for having sheltered the missionaries.
“Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!
From the dust he lifts up the lowly, from the dungheap
he raises the poor to set them in the company of princes,
yes, with the princes of his people.
May the name of the Lord be blessed
both now and for evermore!”
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