St Paul Miki and Companions

Today, February 6th, is the feast day of St Paul Miki and Companions, also known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan. They were executed for the faith in 1597 in Nagasaki.

I visited Nagasaki last year, and I am happy to upload these pictures which I took of the memorial at the site. It is actually right in the city centre of modern Nagasaki.

What I feel is quite significant is the fact that they were canonised in 1862, when, to all intents and purposes, it was still illegal for a Japanese person to be a Catholic.