The Martyrs of Japan – September 10th
On September tenth, in 1622, on a hill near Nagasaki, there took place what is called the great Martyrdom of Japan. Missionaries and lay people from Europe, and Japanese priests, men, women and children were put to death because they refused to give up their Faith in Jesus. The tortures they suffered seem unbelievable, yet they faced them cheerfully. They were killed by slow fires; they were lowered into a pit of hot sulphur called Hell’s Mouth; they were buried alive, branded with a cross, or left out in open prisons without coverings of food. Yet, one Japanese Christian wrote: “How happy I would be if I could be one of those glorious prisoners of Jesus Christ whose blessedness it is to die a martyr’s death!”
One little child named Peter, just six years old, was awakened in the morning to be told that he was to die with his father. Without a word, the little fellow put on his best clothes and placed his hand into the hand of the soldier who had come to lead him to his death. The first thing he saw when he reached the execution site his father’s dead body. Peter did not scream or run away. Quietly he knelt down beside that headless corpse and prayed. Then he loosened his collar and presented his neck for the stroke of the sword.
At the sight of such courage in a six-year-old child the executioner flung down his sword and ran away. No one but a cruel slave would behead the little Christian, and even he trembled so that he made the child suffer terribly before he finally killed him. Yet Blessed Peter never made a sound!
Mothers died with their children, husbands and wives were martyred together. An English sea captain said that the little ones, five and six years old, being burned in their mothers’ arms, cried out: “Jesus, receive out souls!”
So it was that in the year 1622, Japan gave many glorious and blessed martyrs to the Church and to Heaven!
What generous souls these martyrs were! And what are we doing for the salvation of our souls? If they could die for God, we can at least avoid complaining about little pains….
