Official image of Magdalene, work by Adriano Ambrosioni.

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.

It is the pit which will also be the torment which Magdalene suffers, the flower and the symbol of the Augustinian evangelization in these islands. Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki (declared as blessed by John Paul II in 1981, and canonized six years later) personifies and gives a face to the various hundreds of unknown Japanese laity, tertiary, confraternity, who will die in the Augustinian habit. If this abundant harvest of saints is a credit to the apostolate and the life of our martyrs, Magdalene represents the fruit gained from the sowing which the Order carried out.

It is also a symbol of persecuted Japanese Christianity. Because it is born, lives and dies in the catacombs, among martyrs. Because it is Japanese, young and beautiful, and presents itself freely to the tyrant willing to suffer all manner of tortures. Its figure was destined to be sung with the same accent as that of Cecilia, Lucy, Agatha and so many other ancient virgins.

Magdalene was born near to Nagasaki between 1610 and 1612. Her family was Christian, and in this way she was educated. From 1614 the Japanese Church lived in a climate of open persecution. Martyrdom is the horizon and ideal of the Christians; the same as it was in the early centuries, and they wrote and disseminated exhortations to martyrdom which Magdalene would read. They calculate that in the decade of 1614 to 1624 more than 30,000 faithful are killed, and as martyrs would die the saint’s own parents and brothers.

Having grown up in this environment and with these ideals, it is logical that Magdalene would decide quickly to stay as a virgin and consecrate herself to God alone. As has always happened virginity paved the way for, and replaced, martyrdom.

Fate decreed that the efforts and illusions of this young girl would find their source under the direction of Francis of Jesus. He was one of the first people that, in 1624 or 1625, established the orders of the missionary, putting her on the list of the religious and apostolic school. She professed as a tertiary Augustinian Recollect and was given the task of catechist; in the future, she would consecrate herself to sow and cultivate with her words and her life the faith of the Church.

In 1628 faced with the brunt of the persecution Magdalene would have fled to the mountains, like so many thousands of Christians. There she would continue exercising her apostolate under the co-ordination and guidance of the Augustinian Recollects. When at the end of 1632 they were no longer present, she and many others grew in numbers and went about preaching, baptizing and strengthening the faith of others. They will later come in contact with a Dominican friar, Jordan of St. Stephen, also taking refuge in the mountains. At his recommendation, without ceasing to be a tertiary recollect, she will take the habit of the Dominican Third Order although she will not make her profession.

At the beginning of September in 1634, Magdalene will feel moved to make her last and most important service to the faith of the Church. Spontaneously, she will present herself to the tyrant and confess her Christian faith. To the judges it seemed easy to break a young girl of 20 or 22 years of age, tempting her with pleasing offers which she refused. Their failure infuriated them to such an extent that they ordered that she would be submitted to one after another of the worst tortures imaginable, until she would recant.

They started with water torture. They made her swallow large quantities of water, and then later it was forced out violently. The torturers would get tired before one complaint by the victim. Afterwards, they put under her nails large splinters or small pieces of bamboo and she was forced to scratch the ground. According to witnesses, “not even then did she show any sign of pain”.

Seeing the pointlessness of their efforts, the judges decided to play their last card: she was submitted to the torture of “the pit and gallows”, whose very name made Christians tremble; its use had brought about some of the most treasured examples of recanting. At the beginning of October 1634 she was taken out of the prison with ten other Christians. They were made to march through the streets of Nagasaki, on the back of horses, with their hands tied behind their backs until they arrived at the place of martyrdom. Magdalene, dressed in her tertiary Recollect habit, made the journey full of joy encouraging her companions and exhorting Christians as well as pagans.

The torment consisted in hanging the martyr from a gallows by the feet, in such a way that that half the body would be placed in the pit; the pit would be closed up with boards around the waist like a snare. In this position, they would keep the victim for days, until they died of congestion. Magdalene supported this punishment for three and a half days. She died of drowning when the pit filled with water after a night of rain. Her body, as was the custom, was burnt and the ashes thrown into the sea.

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