| The Martyrs of Japan (February 5th) are represented by six Franciscan friars and twenty of their converts who were crucified at Nagasaki on Feb. 5, 1597. These were but the first victims of a cruel persecution in the last years of the sixteenth century that saw hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Japanese Christians suffer death for their faith.
Christianity had been introduced into Japan in 1540 by the Jesuits under Francis Xavier, followed later by the Franciscans. It is estimated that by the 1590’s there were some 300,000 baptized Christians in Japan. This remarkable success was compromised by vain rivalries among the respective religious orders as well as by the dynamics of colonial politics among Japan, Spain, and Portugal. At first the Christian missions were tolerated and ambiguously supported by the powerful Shoguns. But the political intrigues associated with colonialism aroused suspicions of Western intentions of national conquest. These fears boiled over, and beginning in 1597 the Christians were persecuted and brutally suppressed. By 1630, what was left of Christianity in Japan was driven underground.
However, the witness of the Martyrs was not in vain. In the 1880’s many men and women, without priests, were found to have preserved vestiges of the Christian faith through the generations. Today, there are about 1.5 million Christians of several Churches. “The Holy Catholic Church in Japan” (Nippon Sei Ko Kai) is the Anglican body. |
