Martyrs of Japan · Feast day February 6
St. Paul Miki and Companions
The feast day of St. Paul Miki and Companions is February 6, a memorial in the US Catholic calendar.
| Feast day | February 6 |
|---|---|
| In the US calendar | Memorial |
| Title | Martyrs of Japan |
| Died | 1597 |
| Next on Bless’s Today screen | None left in the published calendar (through December 31, 2028) |
Life
When Japan turned against the faith it had welcomed, twenty-six Christians — Jesuit brothers, Franciscan friars, and laymen, the youngest twelve years old — were marched six hundred miles through winter to Nagasaki and crucified on a hill overlooking the harbor.
Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit of samurai family and a renowned preacher, gave his last sermon from the cross: he was dying, he said, for preaching the Gospel, and he forgave his executioners with all his heart. The hidden Church they left behind survived two and a half centuries without priests.
In the calendar
The upcoming dates, through December 31, 2028, when Bless’s Today screen shows St. Paul Miki and Companions. Where the US calendar keeps another celebration that day, it is named instead and no rank is given.
Readings
No dates are left in Bless’s published calendar, which runs through December 31, 2028. St. Paul Miki and Companions keeps February 6 in Bless’s calendar of saints: see the saints of February.
All the saints of February Born on February 6? A saint for every day
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