BEATIFICATION OF PETER KIBI KASUE
AND 187 OTHER NAGASAKI MARTYRS
November 24, 2008
There have been a series of beatifications and canonizations for the Christian martyrs of Japan, most of them from the 17th century:
- The 26 Martyrs of Japan (1597)
On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians – six European Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen including three young boys – were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki. These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears. They were canonized by Blessed Pius IX in 1862 and are listed in the liturgical calendar as St. Paul Miki and companions, with their feast day on Feb. 6
- 205 Martyrs of Japan (1597–1637), beatified in 1867
- 16 Martyrs of Japan (1633–1637), beatified in 1981, canonized in 1987
- 2 Martyrs of Japan (1632), beatified in 1989
- Petrus Kibe Kasui and 187 Companion Martyrs of Japan, to be beatified on Nov. 24, 2008
Cardinal Saraiva Martins, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of Sainthood, presided at the rites in representation of Pope Benedict XVI.
Vatican beatifies
5 priests and 183 lay martyrs
from the 17th century
in Nagasaki
NAGASAKI, Japan, November 24 (AFP) – The Roman Catholic Church on Monday beatified 188 Japanese martyrs from the 17th century in the western city of Nagasaki, the first-ever ceremony of the kind held in the country.
More than 30,000 Christians from Japan and numerous Asian nations gathered at a baseball stadium in Nagasaki for the spectacle.
During the ceremony -- a public act of blessing martyrs, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, a representative of Pope Benedict XVI, declared the beatification, a stage that comes before sainthood in Catholicism.
The 188 Japanese martyrs were mostly laypeople who were tortured to death between 1603 and 1639, for practising their religion.
The beatification ceremony in Japan comes 27 years after then Pope John Paul II visited the country and told an archbishop in Nagasaki that Japan is a country of martyrs and that they should be recognized.
[This is rather misleading, since martyrs in Japan were canonized as early as 1862 - see Table above - and that on that same trip, John Paul II in fact beatified 16 martyrs of Japan [though most of them were foreign missionaries to Japan) in the Philippines, the first time beatification rites were ever held outside the Vatican.]
Pope Benedict XVI issued the decree last year.
Many grey-robed nuns and priests were among the tens of thousands of Christians also from overseas namely Southeast Asia, South Korea and the Philippines, solemnly listening to the words from the pope's envoy.
But no government officials were invited to the beatification -- not even Prime Minister Taro Aso, Japan's first Christian leader.
As many as 30,000 Japanese are believed to have been martyred for following Christianity, which was introduced to the country by the Portuguese Jesuit priest Francis Xavier in 1549 but banned by the government for 250 years.
Before Monday’s ceremony, which was organized by the Japanese Catholic Church, 42 people from Japan had reached sainthood and 205 Catholics with ties to the country had been beatified—all at the initiative of the Vatican.
Manabu Kozasa, right, a descendant of the Rev. Julian Nakaura, who was one of the first Japanese to travel to Rome and receive blessings from the Pope some 400 years ago, is blessed by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008.
Nakaura, who endured torture called 'the pit' with which his body was hung upside down into a hole filled with excrement until he died on the fourth day, is among 188 Japanese Christian martyrs who were killed from 1603 and 1639, and who were beatified today.
The faithful at the beatification rites.
Entire families and children
among the 188 martyrs beatified today
Among the 188 martyrs beatified in Japan today, there are five iests (four Jesuits and an Augustinian) and 183 lay faithful, including children and entire families. They all died 'in odium fidei', the Japanese Bishops have said, for defending the right to profess their faith freely. e.
The bishops say the beatification of the 17th century martyrs is seen as a source of inspiration for the Christians of Japan. The 'martyr families' are a reminder that every family, as a domestic church, is called to live and bear witness to the faith.
The 188 Japanese martyrs to be beatified are classified in the Canonical Process as "Fr Peter Kibe and 187 companions." They were killed between 1603 and 1639.
Peter Kassui Kibe was born in 1587, when Japan still suffered persecutions. In February 1614, an edict declared the closing of all Catholic churches and the internment of all of Nagasaki's priests. Immediately following this act, the priests and laity who led the communities were exiled.
Kibe was ordained a priest on November 15, 1620 and made his vows, as a Jesuit, on June 6, 1622. He was captured in Sendai in 1639, along with two other priests. He was tortured for 10 days, and refusing to renounce the faith, was martyred in Tokyo.
One of his companions in martyrdom was Michele Kusurya, named 'the Good Samaritan of Nagasaki.' He marched up the 'hill of the martyrs,' located outside the city, singing psalms. He died, as did many of the others, tied to a pole and burned at a slow fire.
Another of the soon-to-be blesseds was Nicholas Keian Fukunaga. He died after being thrown into a muddy well, where he prayed in a loud voice until the very end, asking forgiveness 'for not having brought Christ to all the Japanese, beginning with the Shogun.'
Among the martyrs, there are 52 faithful from Kyoto, martyred in 1622, and 53 from Yamagata, who died in 1629.
One of the most moving testimonies is of an entire family of Kyoto - John Hashimoto Tahyoe and his wife, Thecla - martyred along with all their children on October 6, 1619.
The Catholics who survived the persecution had to remain in hiding until the arrival of the European missionaries in the 19th century.
Japan was evangelized by St Francis Xavier, between 1549 and 1552. Immediately following its initiation, the Church passed through an intense persecution. The first martyrs, led by Saint Paul Miki, were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597 and canonized in 1862 by Pius IX. Another 205 were beatified in 1867.
Catholic News Agency has a videoclip about the Nagasaki martyrs:
www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14391
The Japanese Martyrs
The Japanese martyrs were led by a priest named Fr. Peter Kibe Kasui, who was introduced to the faith by St. Francis Xavier’s group of Jesuit missionaries.
The Jesuits were so successful that the number of Christians in Japan grew to 400,000 in 50 years.
However, this growth soon drew the opposition of Tokugawa Ieyasu who was named the new shogun of Japan in 1600, according to the
Hawaii Catholic Herald. By 1614 his desire to protect Buddhism and his people from outside influences led him to wage an intense campaign of persecution against the Japanese Christians.
All missionaries were banned from the island nation and all churches were ordered destroyed. Although Tokugawa died in 1616, his sons Hidetada and Iemitsu continued the persecutions, which claimed the lives of some 4,000 believers, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Fr. Kibe was tortured to death by being hung upside down with his head immersed in a pit filled with excrement and animal carcasses.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/11/2008 20:28]