The Clandestine Catholic Church in Feudal Japan, 1614-1640

The Roman Catholic mission in Japan, which had been founded by St. Francis Xavier in the southern island of Kyushu in 1549, seemed to be in a relatively flourishing position sixty-four years later, save for a local persecution of the faithful in the fief of Arima by the apostate daimyo, or feudal lord of that region. The Jesuit writer of the Annual Letter for 1613-14, after describing the martyrdoms in Arima, stressed that this persecution did not extend to any of the other Christian communities whether in Kyushu, or at Hiroshima, Osaka, and the Imperial capital of Kyoto on the main island of Hondo. “The churches there”, he wrote, “stood open unto all, and God’s Word was freely preached therein, although they were not without some fear and care to see what that tempest which threatened some greater storms to come, would prove at length. They celebrated in the year 1613, the Night of our Blessed Saviour his Nativity in all the places afore mentioned, with great solemnity, concourse and devotion of the Christians.”