February 5th - St. Agatha and The Holy Martyrs of Japan

[Elizabeth]

Saint Agatha
Virgin and Martyr
(† 251)

Saint Agatha was born in Sicily of rich and noble parents, a child of benediction from the first, for she was promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. O Jesus Christ! she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, all that I am is Thine; preserve me against the tyrant.

And Our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given herself so utterly to Him. He kept her pure and undefiled while she was imprisoned for a whole month under charge of an evil woman. He gave her strength to reply to the offer of her life and safety, if she would but consent to sacrifice to the gods, Christ alone is my salvation! When Quintanus turned from passion to cruelty, and cut off her breasts, Our Lord sent the Prince of the Apostles to heal her. She told the elderly gentleman who appeared to her that she was Christian and desired no treatment, for her Lord could cure her by a single word. He smiled, identified himself as Saint Peter, and said: It is in His name that you will be healed. And when he disappeared, she saw that her wounds were healed and her flesh made whole. But when she was rolled naked upon potsherds, she asked that her torments might be ended. Her Lord heard her prayer and took her to Himself.

Saint Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ; she followed Him in virginal purity, and then depended upon Him for protection. And to this day Christ has shown His tender regard for the very body of Saint Agatha. Again and again, during the eruptions of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed her veil for public veneration, and found safety by this means. In modern times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies waiting for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and experienced the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Martyrs of Japan
(† 1597)

When Saint Francis Xavier came to Japan, this empire was totally plunged in paganism; forty years later, there were more than two hundred thousand Christians, most of them animated with all the fervor of the primitive Church. The jealous demon soon raised up a persecution; a confraternity of martyrdom was at once formed, the object of which was to die for Christ. The pursuits were terrible but only served to bring into light the marvels of the holy Faith. The first martyrs were twenty-six in number: six Franciscans, three Jesuits and seventeen lay Christians, among whom were three young altar boys who had joined the confraternity.

A pious Jesuit, crucified, made a touching sermon from the heights of his glorious pulpit, to the pagans surrounding him: At the point where you see me now, he said, I do not think any of you could believe me capable of betraying the truth. Now I declare to you, there is no other means of salvation but the Christian religion! I forgive the authors of my death, I beg them to receive Baptism.

Louis, a child of eleven, when he reached the site of execution asked which cross was his; he ran to it with a joy which touched all the spectators. His face shone with a heavenly radiance as he was dying. Anthony, thirteen years old, was begged by his parents not to die so young, to wait until he was older to confess his faith. He replied: Do not expose our holy faith to contempt and the mockery of the pagans. When he was offered riches by the magistrate, he said, I scorn your promises and life itself. The cross is what I desire for love of Jesus, who chose to die on a cross to save us. Then he bade farewell to his parents and promised to pray for them in heaven. A thirteen-year-old named Anthony, from his cross sang the Psalm Laudate, pueri, Dominum, Children, praise the Lord, — and was pierced through the heart when he reached the Gloria Patri.

All of Japan became as it were a sea of the blood of some two million martyrs, according to estimates made. Finally in 1848, France overcame the terrible prejudices against Catholicism which its enemies had sown in Japan, in order to obtain commercial privileges, and was admitted and allowed to practice its religion freely.
Pius IX canonized these heroes of the Faith on June 8, 1862, amid a great concourse of bishops from all parts of the world.