From Piedmont to the Indies
Antonio Rubino (アントニオ・ルビノ) was born in 1578 in Piedmont, the son of Giovanni Rubino and Anna Rasa, virtuous and wealthy parents.He studied at Turin and entered the Society of Jesus, although his father at first opposed it.In 1602 the Jesuit left Europe in the great expedition of Alberto Laerzio, and he went on to work for forty years in the Indies.
In India he taught mathematics and theology at Goa, taught theology at Cochin and ran the colleges there and at São Tomé (Mylapore).For ten years he was rector on the Fishery Coast.He came to govern almost all the Jesuit missions in Asia, served the viceroys on embassies and wrote defences of the Society against its critics.
Visitor of Japan
Ordered by the Jesuit General Vitelleschi to the Japan province, Rubino reached Macao on June 9, 1638, where the Visitor Manuel Dias introduced him to its affairs.He succeeded him as superior of the province, and from 1639 he was Visitor himself.Japan was the main region under his authority, and he resolved to go there in person.
In a letter of September 2, 1640, he explained that until then the Jesuits could not go openly from Macao to Japan for fear of harming the silk and gold trade on which Portugal depended.Once that trade was broken off, the Visitor judged the Society free of the Portuguese ban and planned at once to reopen the way.News from returned sailors that year said that only one priest was left in Japan.A month later the Visitor wrote that many Fathers offered to go, "but as I am their captain I have the right and duty to give the example" (translated).
He also wrote an account of the Macao embassy to Japan of 1640, which a later history of the mission drew on.His deepest wish was to reach Ferreira, the Jesuit superior who had apostatized, and to bring him to repentance or at least to make up for the scandal by new martyrdoms.
The road through Manila
In November 1640 Rubino sailed from Macao for Manila with Francisco Marques, but they were blown to Cochinchina and stayed six months.In a letter probably of April 1641 he told Alexandre de Rhodes, the superior of that mission, that a crucifix had been thrown publicly into a fire by order of the governor of Cachan, and that he had held back from seizing it lest the governor rage more.In April 1641 the travellers reached Manila.The governor, Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, promised help.
The Visitor went back to Macao in September 1641 to consult the vice-provincial, Gaspar do Amaral, and was back in Manila about the end of April 1642, aged 64.Some advised him to wait, but he answered that turning back would make him like Jonah fleeing from the Lord.He wrote to the General asking for a successor as Visitor.
On July 4, 1642, he sent a farewell letter from Manila to the college of Macao.The General, he wrote, had not made him Visitor to eat and drink in comfort there, so he would go to Japan himself.He hoped that Japan would be opened "not by the way of laymen or merchants, but by that of religious" (translated), and told his brethren to prepare to be burned or hung in the pits.
Of the volunteers, the first band, under his own leadership, was made up of Francisco Marques, Diego de Morales, Antonio Capece and Albert Męciński, with lay volunteers, among them Pascoal Correia de Sousa, a Portuguese, Thomas, a Korean, and Jean, from Patani.The other five Fathers were to follow the next year.
Landing and capture
The first band left Manila on July 4, 1642, disguised as Chinese, on a ship that the governor sent out as if to relieve Keelung on Formosa.On August 11, 1642, their ship ran aground on a small island in the strait of Satsuma (薩摩), and the missionaries kissed the ground and built a hut.Hunters spotted them, and they were found within days.On August 21 they were brought to Nagasaki (長崎).
Questioned by the governor, Rubino answered for all of them.They were priests of Jesus Christ, he said, and they knew of the shogun's ban but held it unjust, since God commanded them not to let so many souls be lost.The apostate Ferreira acted as interpreter, and the Visitor rebuked him until he withdrew.
Torture and the pit
For seven months the prisoners endured the water torture every other day, 105 times in all.They were also burned with torches and red-hot irons, then given remedies to keep them alive.Francisco Marques was also tempted through the affection of his Japanese relatives, but he stood firm.
The last water torture came on March 16, 1643, and the next day they were sentenced to the pit.They answered in Japanese that they understood, and they showed such joy that the governor had the sentence read again, thinking they had misunderstood.Half their heads were shaved and smeared with vermilion, iron gags were put in their mouths, and they were paraded on poor horses.According to one account, their placard read: "The Shogun condemns these persons to death for propagating the Christian religion, which has long been condemned."
They were then hung in the pit, set in a garden.Thomas the Korean died first.Rubino died on March 22, 1643, a date also recorded in a Dutch diary at the time.Męciński and the others followed, and Capece, Morales and Marques, still alive after nine days, were beheaded on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation.Their bodies were cut up and burned, and the ashes were scattered at sea in straw sacks.
The second band and his memory
News of the deaths reached Macao on December 8, 1643, and was celebrated with great joy in the churches of Macao and Goa.Within a decade, accounts of the five Jesuits and three laymen were printed in Rome in 1652 and in Paris in 1653.Far from being discouraged, Alexandre de Rhodes found Jesuits everywhere begging to be sent to Japan and the other Asian missions.
The second band, Pedro Marques, Alonso de Arroyo, Francesco Cassola and Giuseppe Chiara, with the Japanese Brother André Vieira and catechists, landed in 1643 and were soon taken in Chikuzen (筑前).They were sent to Edo (江戸) to be examined by Inoue Masashige (井上政重).Most accounts say that they gave up the faith.The Visitor's own band, by contrast, died in the pit at Nagasaki.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Birthplace. most sources give Turin; Charlevoix says "Strombino" in Piedmont.
- His early career. Pinto dos Santos has him study under Grienberger at S. Antão in Lisbon (1601 to 1602), teach mathematics at Goa (1603 to 1604), take his four vows on May 26, 1613, serve as rector at Colombo in 1619 and as superior of the Fishery Coast from 1623; Profillet speaks of ten years as rector on the Fishery Coast.
- When he became Visitor. Pinto dos Santos gives October 10, 1639 (with October 21 on one page), and Pagès gives October 21, 1639.
- A first attempt in 1640. Pinto dos Santos says a first try for Japan in 1640 was driven off by a storm; Profillet describes the 1640 voyage as bound for Manila.
- How many laymen. Profillet, Pagès and Marnas name three lay companions; Rubino's own letter says probably four; Peña says four lay helpers.
- Jean of Patani. Profillet notes that reports varied on whether he showed weakness in the pit.
- Year of landing. Caddell dates the landing to 1643; all other sources give August 11, 1642.
- The torture. most sources say every other day for seven months (105 times); Fr Rangel's letter of 1644 says every third day for six months, October 1642 to March 1643; Caddell speaks of daily torture for nearly a year.
- His days in the pit. Charlevoix says seven, Delplace's account six.A passage of Profillet that gives five days also turns 105 tortures into "105 months" and is flagged as an error.
- The order of the other deaths. Thomas is placed on March 20 (Marnas) or March 21 (Profillet); Męciński on March 23 (Charlevoix, Delplace, Boero) or March 25 (Profillet); Charlevoix says the other three, still alive on March 24, were hacked to pieces, while others say they were beheaded on March 25.
- Dates of his death. a Dutch diary of March 17, 1643, gives the 22nd, which supports March 22 over March 25.
- Anesaki notes an official document in Ōmura "which throws some doubt" on the final fate of the first group.
- The second band. Profillet says Pedro Marques and André Vieira died for the faith in northern Japan about July 1643 with their limbs sawn; Pagès says the whole group had their limbs sawn, three dying at once and the others later in prison; Couto relays news that all five were executed; Anesaki, Fujita and Teather record that they apostatized, and Teather says one later revoked it before dying in prison.
- Marques's nationality is given as Japanese, Portuguese, or the son of a Portuguese father and a Japanese mother related to the Ōtomo of Bungo.