Today is Feb. 6, the memorial of St. Paul Miki and companions.
We read at today’s Mass, “You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering” (Heb 12:22).
Today we commemorate St. Paul Miki and 25 others, the first martyrs of Japan, who gave their lives in a literal imitation of their crucified Lord. When the group was being led out to be executed and saw crosses laid out before them – the would-be instruments of their death – they began to sing in praise to God! Their unwavering faith, even in the face of brutal persecution, is an extraordinary witness to the power of Christ’s love.
St. Paul Miki, a Jesuit scholastic, was born into a noble Japanese family and became an eloquent preacher of the Gospel, drawing many to Christ despite the growing hostility toward Christianity. Alongside him were his fellow Jesuits, St. Soan John de Goto and St. James Kisai, who each found their own path to the Society of Jesus through service and deep faith. Their martyrdom, along with that of Franciscan friars and Japanese laypeople, marked the beginning of a long history of Christian persecution in Japan — a suffering endured with courage and trust in God’s providence.
A symbol of endurance amid suffering
Centuries later, Nagasaki’s Catholics faced another trial — the atomic bombing of 1945. In the midst of the city’s devastation, a faithful remnant, inspired by the witness of those who had gone before them, clung to their hope in Christ. Dr. Takashi Nagai, a Catholic survivor of the bombing, nursed the wounded and encouraged his fellow Catholics. Just as the martyrs embraced the cross, Dr. Nagai encouraged his community to look beyond the ruins and find hope in God’s mercy.
He led a group of Catholics to search the cathedral’s ruins for its bells. One bell was ruined, but the other was serviceable. Nagasaki’s Catholics rang it on Christmas Eve, 1945.
Today, the Nagasaki Bell Project, an effort to restore the missing bell to Urakami Cathedral, stands as a tangible sign of faith and solidarity between Catholics in Japan and the United States. Much like the martyrs’ Te Deum sung as they faced their crosses, the new bell will ring out a message of perseverance, hope, and a longing for peace. The same faith that sustained St. Paul Miki and his companions through suffering continues to echo through time, calling us to remain steadfast in our own trials.
Let us pray,
O God, strength of all the Saints, who through the Cross were pleased to call the Martyrs Saint Paul Miki and companions to life, grant, we pray, that by their intercession we may hold with courage even until death to the faith that we profess. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
