Monday, July 29, 2013

A Summer Storm

Website:  Kirishtan.com
A Summer Storm


    In late July of 1587, the dictator Hideyoshi clamped a ban on Christ in Japan.  Having just finished his conquest of Kyushu, he was relaxing in Hakata with Toku-un, his private quack and trusted advisor, and overindulging in draining the cask of Portuguese port wine he had been given that very evening by Padre Coelho, the Jesuit Vice-Provincial, the senior clergyman in Japan.
       Earlier that day Hideyoshi had inspected the Padre’s sailing-ship—well gunned to protect herself against the pirates prowling Japan’s sea lanes—and had left in an apparent fit of joy; a Japanese Catholic observer had, however, warned Padre Coelho that he must offer the ship to Hideyoshi at once, for this man could see (unlike the Europeans, not so steeped in the subtleties of unspoken Japanese communication) that the dictator was jealous.  Sadly for Christendom in Japan, the Padre did not heed that prophetic warning.
        He learned its truth in the wee hours of the night: Hideyoshi’s sheriff came to the dock, demanding that the Vice-Provincial debark to hear the dictator’s charges, presumably written up by Toku-un in the depths of the ruler’s drunken revel.

(to be continued)
Website:  Kirishtan.com

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Peter Kibe: Samurai, Priest, and Unflinching Martyr

  Home page:  Kirishtan.com         

        The Fourth of July marks not only the birth of American independence, but also the 374th anniversary of one of the most heroic declarations of freedom Man has ever made.  On 4 July 1639, Japanese samurai and Jesuit priest Father Peter Kasui Kibe refused to renounce Christ under the most grueling regime of torture ever devised by man or devil.  In the wake of Father Peter’s death, the Shogun’s master torturer dubbed him “the man who would not say I give in:”  a perfect epitaph to his heroic life.

           Read the whole story at:  http://kirishtan.com/samurai-martyrs-father-peter-kibe