Father Julian Nakaura withstood the torture of the pit
while in his sixties, hanging on to the glorious end while those around
him, notably the Jesuit Vice-Provincial and Vicar of Japan himself, were
giving in to the torturers’ wiles. Unbearable were the agonies these
experts in cruelty inflicted on captive Christians, agonies compounded
by the noxious stench their victims were forced to breathe, hanging
head-downwards inside those wretched holes loaded with filth and capped
with wooden lids that crimped the captive’s waist. And then there were
the torturers’ constant adjurations to apostatize—a temptation made all
too sweet by promises of life and freedom and the loud insistence that
all one’s brethren had given in, so what’s the harm?
All the more glorious, then, this faithful pastor’s victory over death on 21 October 1633. Read his story here:
