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.
Since 1634, the year of the Martyrdom of Magdalene, until 1987 when she was canonized, more three and a half centuries passed. Many will ask, without a doubt: —why was she not canonized earlier?
Already in 1638, Fr. Augustine Jesus Mary, postulator for the Augustinian Recollects, moved from Manila to Macao to start the process about the missionaries and the tertiaries martyred in Japan. Magdalene was a special case. For this reason Fr. Augustine – in an unusual step – wanted that in addition to the general process to investigate the martyrdom of the Augustinian Recollects, there would be another exclusively for the young tertiary catechist. In it were the testimonies of 41 witnesses. Unfortunately, the acts of this process disappeared into the dossiers of one of the archives. There were left, nevertheless, other sufficient proofs and documents so that even after many centuries Pope John Paul II could proceed with the beatification of Magdalene in Nagasaki on the 18th of February 1981.
According to the legislation of the cause of Saints, in order to be canonized the blessed must have at least one miracle. The visit of John Paul II to the Philippines and Japan for the beatification of Magdalene and the other Japanese martyrs provoked among the Filipino Catholics a great devotion to Lorenzo Ruiz, a Filipino martyr in the group. Many faithful started to commend themselves to the intercession of these martyrs, and they attributed many graces and a cure that the Congregation for the Cause of the Saints have judged to be miraculous. On the basis of this miracle, all the members of the group of the beatified martyrs were canonized on the 18th of October 1987. Among them one finds as the central figure Magdalene of Nagasaki.
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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
