Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan

Life events

1. Other — 1549

   On 15 August 1549, Jesuit missionaries Francis Xavier, Cosme de Torres, and Juan Fernández arrived in Kagoshima from Portugal, initiating Catholic mission activity in Japan. Xavier secured permission from daimyō Shimazu Takahisa on 29 September to establish the first Catholic mission; the shogunate initially welcomed the missionaries as a counterweight to Buddhist influence and a gateway to European trade.

2. Other — 1587

   Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued an edict in 1587 ordering the expulsion of all Christians from Japan, citing foreign influence, concerns about colonialism, and the perceived hostility of Christianity to Buddhism as threats to the Japanese state.

3. Imprisoned — 1597

   In the aftermath of the San Felipe incident of 1596, twenty-six Catholics were arrested in Kyoto in January 1597 on Hideyoshi's orders: six foreign Franciscan missionaries (four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese from India), three Japanese Jesuits, and seventeen Japanese Franciscan tertiaries including three altar boys.

4. Other — 1597

   The twenty-six prisoners were bound with rope and marched through towns behind a sign declaring them criminals for 'defying the regent's prohibition against preaching the Christian faith.' During the procession their left ears were cut off, and crowds subjected them to stoning and other abuse.

5. Martyred — 1597

   On 5 February 1597, the twenty-six were crucified and impaled with lances on a hill overlooking Nagasaki, becoming the first large-scale martyrdom of Catholics in Japan under Hideyoshi's anti-Christian policy.

6. Other — 1622

   Fifty-five Catholics were martyred in Nagasaki on 10 September 1622 in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom; Catholicism was officially outlawed at this point, and the Church remained without clergy until the arrival of Western missionaries in the 19th century.

7. Other — 1627

   Pope Urban VIII beatified the twenty-six on 14 September 1627, in two groups: Pedro Bautista Blasquez y Blasquez and twenty-two companions, together with Paulus Miki and two companions.

8. Other — 1862

   Pope Pius IX canonized the twenty-six martyrs on 8 June 1862. They were placed on the Roman calendar as 'Sts. Paul Miki and his Companions' with a feast on 6 February — 5 February, the date of their death, being occupied by the feast of St. Agatha.

Relationships

Documented claims

• The group crossed national, ethnic, and religious-order lines: six foreign Franciscan missionaries (four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese from India), three Japanese Jesuits, and seventeen Japanese Franciscan tertiaries, among them three boys who served as altar boys. (certain)
• Paul Miki, one of the three Japanese Jesuits among the twenty-six, was singled out as the most celebrated of the group; the entire body of canonized martyrs is listed on the Roman calendar under his name. (likely)
• When Western missionaries returned to Japan approximately 250 years after the 1630 suppression, they discovered a community of 'hidden Catholics' who had preserved their faith underground without clergy or formal theological instruction. (likely)
• The twenty-six martyrs were not added to the General Roman Calendar until 1969; prior to that they were honoured locally and no special Mass for them appeared even in the Missae pro aliquibus locis section of the 1962 Roman Missal. (certain)
• The Church of England, the Anglican Church in Japan (Nippon Sei Ko Kai), the Episcopal Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America all commemorate the Japanese martyrs on 5 or 6 February, giving this 16th-century Catholic martyrdom cross-tradition liturgical standing. (certain)