06 FEBRUARY SAN PAOLO MIKI and COMPANIONS

PRAYER TO THE MARTYRS

O God, the strength of the martyrs, whom you called St. Paul Miki and his companions to eternal glory through the martyrdom of the cross, also grant us through their intercession to witness the faith of our Baptism in life and in death. For our Lord ...

Paolo Miki was a member of the Society of Jesus; he is revered by the Catholic Church as a saint and martyr.

He died crucified during an anti-Christian persecution in Japan: he was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius IX together with the 25 companions of martyrdom.

Born near Kyōto to a noble Japanese family, he was baptized at 5 years of age and at 22 he entered the Jesuits as a novice: he studied at the colleges of the order of Azuchi and Takatsuki and became a missionary; he could not be ordained a priest because of the absence of a bishop in Japan.

The spread of Christianity was initially tolerated by local authorities, but in 1587 the daimyō Toyotomi Hideyoshi changed his attitude towards westerners and issued a decree expelling foreign missionaries.

Anti-European hostility reached its climax in 1596, when a persecution broke out against Westerners, almost all religious, and Christians, considered traitors. In December of that year, Paolo Miki was arrested together with two other Japanese companions of his order, six Spanish missionary friars and their seventeen local disciples, Franciscan tertiaries.

They were crucified on the Tateyama hill near Nagasaki. According to the passio, Paul continued to preach even on the cross, until his death.