From Coimbra to Japan
Diogo de Carvalho was born at Coimbra in Portugal, the son of Álvaro Fernandes and Margarida Luís.He entered the Society of Jesus in his home city in 1594.In 1600 the Jesuit sailed for the Indies with nineteen others, reaching Macao the next year, and from 1605 he studied philosophy and theology there.
He entered Japan in 1609.After a year learning the language and two years in the Amakusa (天草) islands, he worked in the capital region.In 1612 he was at the Jesuit house in Osaka (大坂) under the superior Porro, and he was still working there with Porro during the registration of Christians in 1614.In Japan he also took a Japanese name, Nagasaki Goroemon.
Exile and Cochinchina
When the missionaries were expelled in 1614, Carvalho was sent to Macao.Early in 1615 he went on to Cochinchina with the Neapolitan Francesco Buzomi to serve the Japanese merchants there.The king received both priests well, and they laid the foundations of the mission there.
The next year he was back in Japan, where he had charge of the church of Ōmura (大村) for a year.In 1617 he made his solemn profession of four vows.He was then sent north to Ōshū (奥州) as companion of Jerónimo de Angelis, who had begun the mission there three years earlier.
Apostle of the north
Carvalho became the first Jesuit to live among and care for the Christians of Akita (秋田) and Senboku (仙北), where he founded a large community.In mid-July 1620 he set out from the capital of Ōshū to visit the Christians of Tsugaru (津軽), crossing the mountains to Kubota (久保田), the seat of the lord Daibudono, where he secretly gave the sacraments.Unable to enter that land without the magistrates' rare permission, he went on to Ezo (蝦夷), which was then thought of as "outside Japan" (translated).
There he became the first priest to say Mass in Hokkaido, on August 5, 1620, for the Christian community of Matsumae (松前).He baptized several people there and solemnly celebrated Mass on the feast of the Assumption.On his long journey he converted Diego of Mogami (最上), who took the priest's name, and seven of that family later became martyrs.In all he went to Ezo twice, visited the exiles of Tsugaru three times and founded several churches.
On the way back he made new converts even at the court of the lord of Akita, whose second wife was a fervent catechumen and sent many of her ladies to be baptized.A warning of persecution from Gotō Juan (後藤寿庵) and De Angelis kept him preaching in Dewa (出羽).In 1622 he said the first Mass at Sakata (酒田), the capital of Shōnai (庄内), when the Jesuits first entered that province.That year, when trouble threatened in the lands of Satake (佐竹), he had the Forty Hours devotion kept with written intentions for the governor, the lords and all Japan, and he travelled disguised as a land surveyor.
Hiding at Oroshi
By 1624 Carvalho was superior of all the Jesuits in the lands of Date Masamune (伊達政宗), and he usually lived at Sendai (仙台).In January 1624 the daimyō, fearing the shogun's displeasure, ordered a census of Christians.The priest left the lands of Gotō Juan so as not to ruin his host, and toured the region hearing confessions.
He took refuge at Oroshi, the valley where the daimyō's mines were, in the house of a Christian named Matthias, who built him a hut.About sixty Christians hid in huts in the same snowbound valley.The searchers were about to give up when they found tracks in the snow.
The Jesuit then came out of his hut to meet the soldiers."I am the Father of these poor people" (translated), he told them, preaching to the officers so that the others could escape into the woods.Ten were taken with him, including his companion Matthew and his host.Eight were stripped naked and left all day in the snow, until some soldiers, out of pity, gave them some of their own clothes.
The march to Sendai
On February 9, 1624, the prisoners were paraded round Oroshi, each led by an executioner with a rope at the neck and a banner naming him a Christian.In deep snow, a three-day road to Mizusawa (水沢) and on to Sendai took eight.Two old men, Dominic Dosai and Alexis Koemon, could not keep up, and soldiers made them kneel and beheaded them in a valley.
Officers asked the priest whether the padres wanted to seize Japan.He answered that Europe, his homeland, was the flower of the world, and that they would be mad to leave it for a three-year voyage and a hard life abroad.At Mizusawa he refused to advise the Christians to give up the faith, and said that the greatest favour would be to be boiled, roasted or cut into a thousand pieces for it.Two prisoners, Leo Goniemon and Matthias Taroemon, had their legs crushed between pieces of wood, and the judges, seeing their calm, sent the rest on.On the road a Christian named Julian begged to share their fate and was bound and taken with them.They arrived on February 17.
The frozen pit
On February 18, 1624, the last day of the Japanese year, the prisoners were led to a round pit beside the river at Sendai, fenced with a palisade and filled with water two feet deep.Stripped and tied to posts, they sat in the icy water for more than three hours, while crowds urged them to deny Christ.Afterward only the priest could sit up cross-legged and pray.His host Matthias and the newcomer Julian soon died, and their bodies were cut up and thrown into the river.
Carvalho told the governor's messenger that the God he preached was the one true God, creator of the world, and that he would never deny him.Threatened with fire, the prisoners cried out that they were happy to pass through fire and water to their rest.
On February 22 they were taken back to the same pit to freeze to death.Snow fell hard, a bitter wind blew, and as night came the water began to freeze.When Leo cried out in pain, the Jesuit told him, "A little more, my son; a little more" (translated), and Leo died calling on Jesus and Mary.One by one the others followed.When the last companion, Matthias Taroemon, called out his farewell in the dark, the priest answered with the Japanese word saraba, commending him to God.
Carvalho died a little before midnight, the last of the band.The faithful who stayed by the pit said that he never shivered and comforted each companion.The bodies were cut up and thrown into the river, but Christians kept the heads of five martyrs, his among them.He was 46 years old, with thirty years in the Society and fifteen in the missions of Japan and Cochinchina.A later engraving of his martyrdom by Melchior Küsel shows an angel reaching out a hand to him.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Year of birth. Teather and Cieslik give about 1578, Cooper 1577; Profillet says he entered the Society in 1594 aged 17, Solier at sixteen.
- The Cochinchina mission. most sources say he and Buzomi founded it; Solier says he was sent to re-establish it.
- The first Mass in Hokkaido. Jennes and Charlevoix say he was the first to say Mass in Ezo, but Charlevoix also calls him the first missionary to go there after De Angelis.
- His return from Cochinchina. Profillet and Solier say 1616; Charlevoix says 1615.
- How the hiding place was found. most accounts say footprints in the snow; Solier says a spy betrayed them.
- Hours in the pit. for February 18, Bartoli, Boero and Solier speak of about three hours, but Solier elsewhere says more than ten; for February 22, Bartoli and the caption of Küsel's engraving say twelve, Solier over fifteen and Cooper fifteen; Caddell's fifteen hours comes in a passage that misnames him "Father Paul".
- How deep the water was. Bartoli says knee-deep standing and chest-deep sitting; Charlevoix says up to the chest; Caddell, up to the neck.
- The number who died with him. Cieslik says six Christians on February 22; Cooper says eight Japanese Christians; the Delplace martyrology lists Carvalho with six companions on February 22 and two hosts on February 18.
- His body. Boero (from Bartoli) says the body was given on February 23 to a Christian lord who buried it; most sources say the bodies were cut up and only the heads of five were saved.
- Who carried out the sentence. only Pagès names the official, the governor Moniwa Suwō, acting on Masamune's order, and this fact is marked as disputed.
- A catalogue in Boero dates his death to February 22, 1623, an error for 1624.
- His host's name is spelled in many ways. Mathias "Ifioyé", "Gifioie", "Isiore" and "Sisyoie".