Feb 6 Paul Miki, S.J. 1597

Jack and Thom,
Good morning, I love you
110112, 1338

Brother Paul Miki is a saint I have a personal connection to. In the novitiate, one of my classmates came to us from Watertown MA via Japan. Tom was a sergeant in the army [our secundi also had an army sergeant], stationed in Japan. He came back to the New England Province, with his desire to serve as a missionary in Japan because he was from New England and the Province promised that if his vocation was affirmed in the formation process, they would support his return to the Jesuit missions in Japan. At the time, our Father General had spent substantial periods of his Jesuit life as a missionary in Japan. Support for the Japan mission was worldwide.


February 6

Paul Miki, S.J. d. 1597 b. 1627 c. 1862

Paul Miki was the son of a Japanese military leader. In the sixteenth century, not unlike being the son of an Irish Chieftain? The son of a Japanese military leader becomes a Catholic?! Becomes a Catholic Priest? A Jesuit? A missionary in his home country where the monarchy, the military, and the religious of every ilk were anti-Catholic. Who was this man?

Paul Miki was born at Tounucumada, Japan.

Paul Miki was educated at the Jesuit college of Anziquiama. How did he get to a Catholic College? Certainly the Jesuit college in a mission country would target the elite of the country. The bioblurb in the Jesuit Saints book doesn’t give us much more about Paul Miki’s journey from the son of a Japanese military leader to a Jesuit university? To Catholicism.

Paul Miki joined the Jesuits in 1580. Formation would have been another eight to ten years. That’d give him about ten years as a point person – where else would the son of a military leader be? Who else would the persecutors target?

Paul Miki became known for his eloquent preaching.

Paul Miki was crucified on Februay 5, 1597 with twenty-five other Catholics during the persecution of Christians under the Taiko, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruler of Japan in the name of the emperor. Let us not forget! Let us not let anyone ever forget.

While hanging upon a cross Paul Miki preached to the people gathered for the execution: “The sentence of judgment says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I certainly did teach the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason I die. I believe that I am telling only the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”

Among the Japanese laymen who suffered the same fate were: Francis, a carpenter who was arrested while watching the executions and then crucified; Gabriel, the nineteen year old son of the Franciscan's porter; Leo Kinuya, a twenty-eight year old carpenter from Miyako; Diego Kisai (or Kizayemon), temporal coadjutor of the Jesuits; Joachim Sakakibara, cook for the Franciscans at Osaka; Peter Sukejiro, sent by a Jesuit priest to help the prisoners, who was then arrested; Cosmas Takeya from Owari, who had preached in Osaka; and Ventura from Miyako, who had been baptized by the Jesuits, gave up his Catholicism on the death of his father, became a bonze, and was brought back to the Church by the Franciscans.

They were all beatified in 1627. Then, soon after the return of Catholic missionaries from two hundred years of banishment, they were canonized as the Martyrs of Japan in 1862. Their feast day is February 6th.

When missionaries returned to Japan in the 1860s, at first they found no trace of Christianity. But after establishing themselves they found that thousands of Christians lived around Nagasaki and that they had secretly preserved the faith. Beatified in 1627, the martyrs of Japan were canonized in 1862.

I commend to you both Paul Miki and Pedro Arrupe, the Father General when I was a novice.

I love you,
Dad
1405

P.S.

One of the online blurbs about the Martyrs of Japan started this way:

“Nagasaki, Japan, is familiar to Americans as the city on which the second atomic bomb was dropped, immediately killing over 37,000 people. Three and a half centuries before, 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki.”

I do not get the connection. The atomic bomb saved hundreds of thousands of lives to end a most vicious continuation of vengeful fighting by the Japanese. Maybe we should agree that Nagasaki is a place to put the label “Never Again.” - Never again let anyone mount a surprise attack on our innocent and at peace civilians and military in Hawaii or anywhere on American Soil – including Manhattan! Let us bravely bring our faith to anyone and everyone and be prepared to be crucified – literally and figuratively – for bringing Jesus and The One True Faith.