Paul Miki
Japanese member of the Society of Jesus, one of the twenty-six Christians crucified at Nagasaki on 5 February 1597. The Jesuit report of that year gives his words from the cross, in which he forgave those who put him to death.
What is told here comes from the report of the Jesuit Luís Fróis, written in the months after the crucifixion. Fróis lists Miki among the three members of the Society of Jesus who were crucified with the six Franciscans and seventeen other Japanese at Nagasaki, and calls him “our brother” (Fróis, Account of the Martyrdom at Nagasaki chapter 14, sections 106–110 (pp. 768–769)).
Seeing himself, Fróis writes, in the most honoured pulpit he had ever had, Miki told the bystanders that he was a Japanese and of the Society of Jesus, that he was dying for having preached the gospel, and that he thanked God for it. He declared that there was no way to salvation but the one the Christians hold, and, since that way taught him to forgive his enemies, he forgave the ruler and all who were responsible for his death and asked them to receive baptism. He then turned to encourage his companions. The executioners killed each of the crucified with one or two thrusts of a lance (Fróis, Account of the Martyrdom at Nagasaki chapter 14, sections 106–110 (pp. 768–769)). See the Martyrs of Nagasaki and the Ban on Christianity in Japan.
In the timeline
- 1597 to 1614, firm dateThe Martyrs of Nagasaki and the Ban on Christianity in Japan
In 1597 the Japanese ruler Hideyoshi has twenty-six Christians, foreign friars and Japanese converts, crucified at Nagasaki. In 1614 the Tokugawa government orders Christianity suppressed throughout Japan as a threat to the country of the gods and of Buddha.