A forty-year-old lay Franciscan of Nagasaki, crucified alongside Paul Miki and his companions at Nishizaka in February 1597.

Ioachim Sakakibara, a Nagasaki layman and member of the Secular Franciscan order, was forty years old when he was crucified with twenty-five companions at Nishizaka on 5 February 1597, victims of the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s campaign against Christianity in Japan. He was canonized in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.

Quick Facts

• Died: 5 February 1597, Nishizaka, Nagasaki, Japan (age 40)
• Feast Day: 6 February (Saints Paul Miki and Companions)
• Beatified: 1627
• Canonized: 1862

Who Was Saint Ioachim Sakakibara?

As a Japanese layman committed to the Franciscan way of life in Nagasaki, Sakakibara belonged to the lay Catholic community that had grown around the Franciscan mission there, a community targeted alongside the missionaries themselves when Hideyoshi ordered the arrests.

Historical Setting

Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the arrest of a group of Franciscan missionaries, Jesuit brothers, and Japanese lay catechists in late 1596; marched several hundred miles to Nagasaki, all twenty-six were crucified together at Nishizaka on 5 February 1597 as a deliberate public warning against Christianity.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Ioachim Sakakibara

The Church remembers Sakakibara as one of the Japanese laypeople of Nagasaki, not only a foreign missionary or a Jesuit brother, executed as part of the same group, showing that the persecution struck at Japan’s own Catholic community as much as at the missionaries who had brought the faith to it.

Canonization and Feast Day

Recognition of Sakakibara’s martyrdom came in two stages centuries apart: beatification in 1627 under Urban VIII, and canonization in 1862 under Pius IX, placing him among Saints Paul Miki and Companions, whose feast is kept on 6 February.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

It is easy to remember foreign missionaries and forget the local converts who stood beside them at the greatest cost. Sakakibara’s witness as a Japanese layman calls Catholics to honor the indigenous believers of any mission territory as fully as the missionaries themselves.

A Prayer to Saint Ioachim Sakakibara

Saint Ioachim Sakakibara, lay Franciscan of Nagasaki martyred for the faith you had received, pray for the Catholics of Japan and for lay believers everywhere who live the Gospel in their own land. Amen.

Sources

• Butler’s Lives of the Saints, revised edition, entry for Saints Paul Miki and Companions
• Vatican.va, canonization records of Pope Pius IX, 1862
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, entry on the Martyrs of Japan