A daughter of martyrs
Magdalena of Nagasaki was a young Japanese tertiary of the Augustinian Recollects who died for the faith in the pit at Nagasaki in October 1634.She was born in or near the city to noble Christian parents, and her father, mother, brothers and sisters all died as martyrs.Her family name and the names of her parents were never recorded.She vowed her life to God as a virgin.From pious books in Japanese and Portuguese she learned her faith well, and she could read and write Latin letters.
Catechist to the Recollect friars
The Augustinian Recollect Francisco de Jesús gave Magdalena the habit of a tertiary, received her profession after a year of probation, and made her one of his dōjuku, with leave to baptize when needed.She became interpreter and catechist to him and to his fellow friar Vicente Carvalho, following them through the mountains.She converted pagans, baptized when no priest was present, reconciled those who had given up the faith, and kept her house open to all who needed counsel.Witnesses later said she kept house for Fr Vicente and was his special companion in the work.Even pagans called her "the saint" (translated).
In the mountains
When the governor Takenaka Uneme pressed the persecution harder, Magdalena fled to the mountains with many Christians, living in caves and clefts in the rock and eating wild herbs.She kept up her work while the friars were in prison, and for nearly two years after their deaths she went on preaching, baptizing and counselling.With the last Recollect friars gone, she turned to the Dominicans, above all to the Italian Jordán de San Esteban, who reached Japan in 1632.He heard her confession only about three times, and gave her a religious habit "more for the soul than for the body" (translated), since religious could not then wear their habits in Japan.She also wore the Dominican scapular.
Before the governor
In 1634 Magdalena gave herself up to the authorities in Nagasaki of her own accord.One account says she went to the governor to rebuke his cruelty, after so many Christians had given way under torture at Unzen.Another says that after her Dominican director's arrest she went to the prison, declared herself a Christian, a religious and his disciple, and argued before the judges for her right to die with him.The governor told her she was worthy to marry a great prince.She answered that her only spouse was Christ, and that "her only title of nobility was the blood of the martyrs" (translated).
Torture and the pit
Magdalena was held in prison from early September to early October 1634 and tortured to make her reveal where the priests were hiding.She was made to drink water and then hung head down to empty her, again and again, and sharpened canes were driven under her fingernails.Of her bleeding fingers she said: "Oh, what beautiful hyacinths, heavenly Spouse, are these with which I see myself adorned for your love!" (translated).In early October she was led through all the streets of Nagasaki on horseback with a rope at her throat, at the head of ten other condemned Christians, with her sentence on her back.At the pit she was lowered so deep that only her legs, covered for modesty, stayed above ground.
The ten others died quickly, but she lived on without food for nearly two weeks.Guards several times found her hands untied and her sitting by the pit, praying on a rosary of Japanese paper.Once, taken out at her own request, she gave the guards three pieces of silver to buy wine because they must be tired, and asked to be put back.From the pit she sang songs of praise in Japanese, so sweetly that the guards said it could not be a human voice.At last heavy rain filled the pit and she drowned.Her body was burned and the ashes thrown into the sea.
A saint of the Church
The Christians of Nagasaki soon venerated Magdalena, called on her in their needs and sought her relics, and even pagans held her a true martyr.In 1638 a church inquiry at Macao heard 41 witnesses, mostly Portuguese merchants and Japanese Christians in exile, most of whom had seen her die.Both the Augustinian Recollects and the Dominicans counted her as their tertiary.In 1980 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared that she had first professed as a Recollect tertiary and later received the Dominican tertiary habit as a novice.She was beatified in 1981 and canonized in 1987.A modern biographer has proposed calling her the Japanese St Cecilia, patron of church musicians.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Her birthplace. the Recollect account, Profillet and the 1656 hymn say Nagasaki; the Dominican account, from Fr Jordán de San Esteban's lost letter as quoted by Francisco de Paula, says a small village near Nagasaki.
- Her age at death. 18 in the Recollect account and Profillet, 22 in the Dominican account; Peña gives 18 to 22.
- When she made her vow. in childhood (Recollect) or at 22, when orphaned, before an image of Our Lady of the Rosary (Dominican).
- How she gave herself up. by going to the governor to rebuke him (Recollect account, Profillet) or by going to the prison after Fr Jordán's arrest (Dominican account, Wilberforce).
- Days in the pit. thirteen (several Macao witnesses and the 1656 hymn), thirteen and a half (Dominican account, Profillet) or fourteen (Recollect account).
- How she died. the Dominican account says the judges, enraged, let her drop head first into the pit, striking her head, before rain filled it; the Recollect account and the witnesses speak only of the rain.
- The exact day. Profillet gives about October 15, 1634.
- Her order. the Dominicans counted her a Dominican tertiary and the Recollects objected; at Macao 23 of 41 witnesses said she belonged to the Recollects.
- Her habit on the way to death is described as black, black with the Augustinian belt, or dark blue.
- Anesaki thought the Marie-Madeleine of Pagès "probably a fictitious personage", though she is generally identified with St Magdalena of Nagasaki.