Saint Paul Miki

Paul Miki was born into a wealthy Japanese family and educated by Jesuit missionaries, eventually entering the Society of Jesus as a seminarian and becoming a noted and effective preacher in his own right, drawing many converts to Christianity in a country where the faith was still relatively new. As the ruling authorities grew increasingly suspicious of Christianity's spread and its perceived ties to foreign powers, a policy of persecution began. In 1597, Paul Miki was arrested along with twenty-five other Christians, including fellow religious, laypeople, and children, and the group was forced to march roughly six hundred miles to Nagasaki, where they were crucified together on a hillside overlooking the city. According to eyewitness accounts, Paul Miki used his final moments on the cross to preach forgiveness of his executioners and encourage the crowd toward the Christian faith. He and his companions, now known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan, were canonized together in 1862.