Saint Justin Martyr

Dominicans were, according to legend, the first missionaries to Japan, and 1530 is given as the date of their martyrdom. However, no conclusive proof exists regarding their names or number, and Saint Francis Xavier rightly holds the title of apostle to this island kingdom.

Following in Xavier's footsteps came other missionaries, and, for about 40 years, they worked with great results among the people. Then, in the closing years of the century, persecution flared, and the blood of martyrs cried out with a louder voice than that of the preachers.

Ferdinand took the Augustinian habit in Mentilla, and in 1603, was sent to Mexico, and thence to Japan in 1605 as vicar provincial. He worked at Osaka with great success until his capture and execution en route to Omura.

The first Dominican to die in the great persecution was Alphonsus Navarrete. When Alphonsus was very young, he gave up his inheritance to enter the Dominican Order in Valladolid and, after he had completed his studies, was sent to the Philippine missions. The great persecution had just begun in Japan. The year before Alphonsus left Spain, a group of 26 Christians, including many Franciscans and three Japanese Jesuits, were crucified in Nagasaki.

Despite the dangers, the Dominicans, who had been excluded from Japan for several years, yearned to go into the perilous mission field. Alphonsus in particular, after a trip to Europe to recruit missionaries in 1610, begged to be allowed to go to Japan. In the following year his offer was accepted and he was sent as superior of the missionary band. During the short interval of peace, they began their work, and, during six years of growing danger, they instructed the people and prepared them for the dreadful days to come.

The missionary career of Alphonsus was brief, and it was always overshadowed by the threat of death that beset the Christians in that unhappy country. However, in the few years of his apostolate, his accomplishment was immeasurable. Like his Divine Master, he went about teaching and baptizing the people. He is called the "Vincent de Paul of Japan," because it was he who first began the tremendous task of caring for the abandoned babies there. He anticipated the work of the Holy Childhood Society by gathering up the homeless waifs and providing for their support from money he begged of wealthy Spaniards.

The warning bell of the great persecution was sounded with the martyrdom in Omura of two priests, a Franciscan and a Jesuit. Alphonus Navarrete and his Augustinian companion Ferdinand went to Omura with the intention of rescuing the relics of the martyrs and consoling the Christians. They were captured on the way, and with a young native catechist, were beheaded. Their bodies were thrown into the sea.

Five years later, on the hill of the holy martyrs of Nagasaki, more than 50 Christians sealed their faith with their blood. Some of the martyrs were beheaded, some were burned at the stake. In the group were nine Jesuits, including the famous Father Charles Spinola, nine Franciscans, and nine Dominicans, among whom were the Blesseds Alphonsus de Mena, Angelo Orsucci, and Hyacinth Orphanel. Louis Bertrand, a nephew of the saint of that same name, perished in the same persecution.

"Is this not the task of philosophy to enquire about the divine?" --Saint Justin Martyr.

Saint Justin was a layman and the first great Christian philosopher who wrote books of sizable length. His own writing gives details of his life. According to his account his pagan parents were of Greek origin. He was given a liberal education and devoted himself particularly to rhetoric, poetry, and history. He then moved on to the study of philosophy, and he studied the system of the Stoics, then gave it up because it taught him nothing of God.

He applied to the school of Pythagoras but was told that a preliminary knowledge of music, geometry, and astronomy would be required. He came into contact with a respected Platonist, however, who led him to the science of God.

One day, while wandering near the seashore, reflecting upon one of Plato's maxims, he saw an impressive-looking old man, whom he engaged in a discussion about the maxim. The man told him of a philosophy nobler and more fulfilling than any he had yet studied-- one that had been revealed by God to the Hebrew prophets and culminated in Jesus Christ.

Justin was inspired to study the Scriptures and to learn about Christianity. He found that while the teachings of Plato are not identical to Christianity, they led him to embrace the teachings of Jesus. He is said to have become converted by his reading and by observing the heroism of martyrs. He became a Christian at the age of 30 and was baptized at Ephesus or Alexandria, both cities that he visited.

In his teaching as well as his writing, he described the faith of the Christians and what took place at their meetings, an approach that most early Christians avoided in order to protect their rites from profanation. He tried to show that faith was compatible with rational thought.

He travelled much and held disputations with pagans, heretics, and Jews. At a time when Christians were continually subjected to persecution by the civil authorities, his first open defense of Christianity was addressed to the Emperor Antonius Pius, along with the emperor's three adopted sons. His second great public defense, written about the year 161 was addressed to the Roman Senate itself.

Justin did not believe that everything he learned before becoming a Christian must necessarily be untrue. "Those who have been inspired by the creative word of God, see through this a measure of the truth," he wrote. "We are taught that Christ, the first-born of God, is the word of which the whole human race partakes, so that those who before him lived according to reason may be called Christian, even though accounted atheists." Justin wanted to embrace people like the Greek Socrates and the Jewish father Abraham into the fold of Christianity.

At last he came to Rome, where he opened a Christian school, with Tatian as one of his students. At some point he presented his Apology to the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He argued in public with a Cynic named Crescens, whom he accused of ignorance and misrepresentation. It is believed that it was through the machinations of Crescens' followers that Justin was arrested.

He was brought before Rusticus, the prefect of Rome, and records of his trial still exist. He stated his beliefs openly. When asked to sacrifice to idols, Justin replied, "No right-minded man forsakes truth for falsehood." He was sentenced to be scourged and beheaded. Six other Christians, including a woman, died with him (Bentley, White).

Among the writings of Justin and about him available on the web are: