Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki is a Japanese martyr, patron saint of the Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternity. Her life story, her testimony in death and her faith are today a ray of light for many people, so many years later.
At the death of saint Magdalene there were only two Augustinian priests still alive: Thomas of Saint Augustine and Michael of St. Joseph. Both were Japanese and spiritual disciples of Blessed Bartolomé Gutierrez, their master of novices.
Thomas was one of the missionaries of the failed expedition of 1630. At that time he was 28 years old and ardently desired to return to his country. He will succeed the following year, 1631. Favoured by his native appearance, he will obtain a job as the stable hand of the governor of Nagasaki. In this way he could see and talk frequently with Bartolomé Gutierrez and the other religious imprisoned in Omura.
Using the name of “Kintsuba”, he will become an authentic legend in Nagasaki, for his ability to outwit his persecutors. For many years he secretly practiced his ministry in a wide radius of action whose center was the stables of the governor, where he worked. He was finally captured on the 1st of November 1636. After ferocious tortures, he will also die in the pit on the 6th of November 1637.
Michael of St. Joseph, for his part, quickly found refuge in his native region, where it is supposed that he would have found more calm. He had to have survived Kintusba for very little time, being the last Augustinian in Japan. He also died a martyr, certainly on the gallows, but it is not known when.
In reality, it is in this year of 1637 when the darkest night falls upon Japan. The last act will mark the revolt of the rural workers in the entire Nagasaki region. These were in the majority Christians, although the motives of the uprising were, up to a point, economic. In the middle of April 1638, the insurrection is quashed in the so-called “battle of Shimabara”, that terminated with the taking of the Hara Castle and the death of more than 30,000 rebels. But, aside of those who had taken up arms, it is calculated that there could have been martyred some 20,000 Christians simply for being Christians.
From this moment, there starts the large period of the kakura kirishitan or “secret Christians”, which will be prolonged for more than 250 years. During this time, the persecution continues to be overt and it uses the most sophisticated tortures imaginable. In 1862, when Pius IX canonizes Paul Miki and his 25 companions, they still didn´t have religious freedom. This will only be officially recognized in 1889. Twenty years earlier, in 1865, when Japan started to open itself to the outside world; the West was truly astonished to see the appearance of groups of Christians that had conserved their faith and even the images of their ancestors.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- 1. 1584-1632: The First Augustinian martyrs: Francis of Jesus and Vincent of St. Anthony
- 2. 1632-1637: The fire continues: Martin of Saint Nicholas and Melchior of Saint Augustine
- 3. Magdalene
- 4. The last act
- 5. The world in which she lived
- 6. The martyr, for St. Augustine
- 7. A very large process
- 8. Recollect or Dominican? A disputed Saint
- 9. The Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternity
- 10. What does Saint Magdalene tell us today?
- 11. A life of traveling around, to die singing
