Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs

On 5 February 1597, twenty-six Christians were crucified on a hill outside Nagasaki on the orders of the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had come to fear the missionaries. They were six Franciscans from Spain, Mexico and India, three Japanese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese laymen, among them boys of twelve and thirteen. They were marched for a month from Kyoto to Nagasaki, with part of their left ears cut off, as a warning to others.

Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit from a noble family and a gifted preacher, spoke to the crowd from his cross, saying that he forgave Hideyoshi and his executioners. When missionaries returned to Japan in the 19th century, they found Christians who had kept the faith in secret. The martyrs were canonized in 1862.