Abstract
The Franciscan martyrdom of 1597 was not an unprecedented event in the young history of Japanese Christianity, as a first wave of persecutions occurred ten years earlier. But the echo it found in Asia, America and Europe, was unparalleled. This article aims to account for Franciscan success in giving worldwide publicity to what could otherwise be seen as a local event of limited consequence. The martyrdom of 1597 finds it roots in a context of tensions between Christians and Buddhists, who formed an overwhelming majority in Japan. However, the persecutions had more to do with the suppression of troubles than with theological considerations. But this political aspect is hardly apparent in Franciscan sources, which were mostly concerned with describing the martyrdom. From the start, the Franciscans were keen to actively circulate witnesses’ accounts of the martyrdom in Mexico and in Europe. What also helped the event achieve worldwide publicity was that the Franciscans blamed the Jesuits for the outbreak of persecutions. The martyrdom indeed became the object of a dispute between religious orders, but with political ramifications, as the Spanish in the Philippines supported the Franciscans while the Jesuits were closely dependent on the Portuguese in Macao.
Highlights
The Franciscan martyrdom of 1597 was not an unprecedented event in the young history of Japanese Christianity, as a first wave of persecutions occurred ten years earlier
Since the beginning of the Jesuit mission in 1549, the Japanese had been constructed in missionary discourse as a refined people, receptive to Christianity and eager to convert (Bourdon, 1993)
The outbreak of persecutions came unexpected, the largely ineffective 1587 ban on Christianity represented a first warning. This was, a period of intense political change in Japan, as the long era of fragmentation and civil wars was coming to an end and a new centralized state was emerging (Hall, 1991: 40-95). It was in this context that the Franciscans in the Philippines took the initiative of establishing their own mission in Japan
Summary
The disciples of St Francis followed a very different strategy from that of the Jesuits The latter adapted many aspects of their preaching, clothing and liturgy to local social and religious customs in order to facilitate the acceptance of Christianity. They do mention the San Felipe incident, never present it at a significant factor for the martyrdom (Ribadeneira, 1599: 465; De Jesús, 1926: 405). Instead, they incriminate Hideyoshi’s personality: he is depicted as a tyrant, influenced and prone to tantrums, who arbitrarily decides to put the missionaries to death. The Franciscan hagiographies do identify a likely culprit for provoking Hideyoshi’s sudden wrath
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