Forty years after St. Francis Xavier introduced Christianity to Japan, the Emperor Tagosama began a terrible persecution of the faithful converts. At the time, there were 200,000 Japanese Catholics.
When the news spread that all Catholics who professed the Faith or who helped the missionaries were to be imprisoned, many zealous souls became enthused to give their life for Christ. The General of the Army, upon hearing the edict, went directly to the house of the Jesuit missionary to die along side him followed by the sons of the Viceroy of the Emperor.
Soon, the Emperor's relative and the Queen of Bungo and her two daughters joined them wearing dresses especially prepared for the occasion. More came from the house of Bungo including an eighty year old veteran soldier who went to his death carrying his weapons.
Particularly, outstanding was the deportment of the youth. When a father called to his son exhorting him to abandon the faith as he had done, the boy answered," You should try to keep me in the bosom of the Church rather than take me from her. You should return to the worship of the true God, Whom you so cowardly renounced. You can do whatever you please. But as for me, there is no law obliging a son to imitate the perfidy of his father."
These are only a few of the marvelous examples of the heroic martyrs of the nascent Church of Japan. Many more stories of these saints have been written in the book," The Victories of the Martyrs" by St. Alphonsus de Liquori.
We are so edified by the zeal, heroism and fortitude that these new converts had in the face of persecution and privation. One could ask, "Why does it seem that this state of soul is difficult to find in modern times?" Let us ask the Japanese martyrs to understand this dilemma of our present day.
No comments:
Post a Comment