Milestone Monday
On this date, September 27 in 1540, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) received its charter from Pope Paul III with the aim as “soldiers of God” to establish educational institutions, found foreign missions, and halt the spread of Protestantism. To commemorate this event, we present some engravings of Jesuit martyrdoms in Japan from De Christianis apvd Iapanios trivmphis sive de gravissima ibidem contra Christi fidem persecvtione (”The Christian triumph of the Japanese or of the most grievous persecution which arose there against the faith of Christ”) by the Jesuit missionary in China Nicolas Trigault, published in Munich by Raphael Sadeler in 1623. The book covers the period from 1612-1620.
The Jesuits were the first Catholic missionaries in Japan beginning around 1549 and led by Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Society of Jesus. Persecutions and martyrdoms of Catholics in Japan began in 1587 and culminated in the Great Genna Martyrdom of 1632, which sent the church in Japan underground until the 19th century.
Many of the images in this book are quite gruesome, but at least we get to add to our Tumblr collection of severed heads!
View our other Milestone Monday posts.
