Women Martyrs in Passion and Paradise

Abstract

Martyrologies provided the theological basis and models for women martyrs during the Christian persecution in early modern Japan. The biblical stories of Christ’s passion empowered women in their own pursuit of passion. Christian assurance of salvation in paradise opposed the Buddhist doctrine, which condemned women to the blood lake. The hope of mystical union with Christ also liberated women from the marriage alliances in Confucian society. In martyrdom, women showed their ultimate loyalty not to their patriarchs, feudal lords, or shoguns, but to Christ and their companions. The stories of the early church women saints demonstrated women’s strength as apologists, scholarly disputants, leaders of women’s communities, and leaders of resistance to imperial inquisitors. Early women saints overcame torture with their “manly” determination while remaining in their female bodies. Records of the actual women martyrs show some evidence of their appropriation of these early models in martyrologies in their own context.