Japanese 188 Blessed

Petrus Kibe and 187 martyrs in Japan

On November 24, 2008 in Nagasaki, at the Big-N Baseball Stadium, Fr. Peter Kibe and 187 other Japanese martyrs were beatified. They were killed between the years 1606 and 1639. The ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, as the envoy of Benedict XVI and prefect emeritus of the congregation for the causes of saints. There is great anticipation among Japanese Catholics, and about 30,000 people are expected to come to Nagasaki to participate in the beatification Mass.

The 188 martyrs cover only a brief period of the history of persecution in Japan. After the first promising beginnings of evangelization in the second half of the 1500's, in the 1600's the persecution of Christians began, to the point of prohibiting Christianity, driving out foreign missionaries, and implementing absolute persecution, among the cruelest ever seen. It was only in 1873, under Emperor Meiji, that the end of the persecution was decreed with an edict of tolerance. The story of the 188 Japanese martyrs is interwoven with that of the country, with its problems of domestic politics, the struggles among feudal lords and for the unification of Japan; with the relations, alliances, and betrayals with colonial powers. But it also clearly shows the attempt of political power to dominate completely the life of the population and of Christians, and the brilliance of the faith of these latter, who were killed even amid the admiration of their countrymen.

Among the 188 to be beatified, 4 are priests, one is a religious, and the majority - 183 - are laypeople: some nobles, some respected samurai, common people, farmers, and even adolescents and children. Of them, 60 are women, 33 were under the age of 20; 18 were children under the age of five. They include entire families who faced martyrdom together.