Some people are saints because they were the first of their kind to be noticed. The first martyrs, the first theologians, the first apostles and missionaries all have their representative saints. Some people are called saints because the Church recognises the holiness of their lives. And some saints combine both these qualities. Paul Miki is one of these. He is the first Japanese martyr.
He was born into a military family at a time when Japan was very cautiously opening up to outside influences. Portuguese and Spanish traders brought new goods and wealth and the Shogun, the effective ruler of Japan, supported their enterprise. The Jesuits came too and the Shogun used their missionary activity as an antidote to the power of important Buddhists political factions. However, Japan remained very suspicious indeed of foreigners. When it was discovered that some European merchants were trading gunpowder for female slaves, popular opinion turned viciously against the growing Christian community and against all Europeans. The Church went underground but not before a great many had been arrested and sent to their deaths. Japan began a period of centuries of isolation.
Paul Miki was one of those arrested. He had been educated at the Jesuit school in Azuchi and then Takatsuki before moving to Kyoto. He and his twenty five companions were arrested and publicly humiliated. Then they were marched all they way to Nagasaki where they were to be executed. As they walked along, Paul and his companions sang hymns and preached to the crowds that came to jeer and mock as they passed. When they arrived in Nagasaki they were hung on crosses and killed with lances.
As he hung on the cross waiting for the lance, Paul’s last words were these: “The sentence says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught about Christ. I certainly did teach about Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe I am only telling 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.”
Paul’s dying wish came true. The trading port of Nagasaki became such a centre of Christianity that when foreign missionaries were eventually allowed back to Japan in the nineteenth century, they found an underground Christian community alive and well living there. This community was more or less destroyed by the atomic bomb at the end of the Second World War. Today, there is full religious freedom in Japan and the number of Christians grows slowly but steadily.
Author: C B Whittle