St. Magdalene of Nagasaki, O.S.A.

Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki, virgin and martyr

October 20

Magdalene was born in 1611 near Nagasaki, Japan, the daughter of devout Christian
parents. While she was still young her mother, father, and siblings were martyred for the
faith. In 1624 she became acquainted with two Augustinians, members of the Recollect
Congregation, Francis of Jesus and Vincent of Saint Anthony, and was attracted by
their deep spirituality. She became an Augustinian tertiary, teaching catechism to the
young, seeking alms for the poor, encouraging her people in times of persecution.
When these two friars were martyred, she placed herself under the spiritual guidance of
two other Augustinians who eventually also received the crown of martyrdom. In 1629
she sought refuge in the hills of Nagasaki, sharing the sufferings of her fellow
Christians, baptizing the young and visiting the sick. Because many Christians were
renouncing their faith in the face of torture, she decided to encourage them through her
own acceptance of persecution. In September 1634, dressed in the habit of a tertiary,
she turned herself in to the anti-Christian civil authorities. In October of that same year
she was subjected to the torture of the pit for 13 days. On the last day the pit was filled
with water and she was drowned. Her body was burned and her ashes were dispersed
to prevent the Christians from having any relics of her. Magdalene was beatified in 1981
and canonized by John Paul II on October 18, 1987.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Saint Magdalene
followed the example of Jesus by accepting physical suffering in order to strengthen the
spiritual resolve of her fellow Christians. She is a convincing example of a young person
totally devoted to the Gospel and the service of others, whose love for God and
neighbor knew no limit.

OCTOBER 20
St. Magdalene of Nagasaki,
Augustinian lay woman and
Martyr
Blessed Magdalene was born and grew up in Japan during a period of open and
undisguised hostility toward the Christian religion. Persecution was manifest to all who
embraced Faith in Christ. The types of “imaginative and original” torture used by the
opponents of the faith show very clearly the hatred in the hearts of those who ruled.
Her parents, who are described by historians as “most virtuous and noble Christians,”
were martyred about the year 1620, when their daughter was in her early adolescence.
The first Augustinians who arrived in Japan in 1623 were members of the
Augustinian Order’s observant movement: Fathers Francis of Jesus and Vincent of
Saint Anthony. As an active and enthusiastic Christian, Magdalene made contact with
them and though communication was difficult, she worked with them as an interpreter
and later as a catechist. From the start she found herself well disposed to Augustinian
spirituality, characterized as it is by the search for God, interiority, and the living of faith
in communion with others.
In their work of evangelization the missionaries emphasized the promotion of religious
associations and gave special attention to the Augustinian Third Order. However, it was
quite difficult for Christians to live their faith publicly. To approach the missionaries for
doctrinal and religious nourishment was risky for themselves as well as the friars.
Following the example of many other Christians in similar difficulties, Magdalene took
refuge in the hills and dedicated herself to baptizing converts and sustaining those who
has grown weak in their faith.
The persecution made necessary all sorts of subterfuge, but Magdalene did not lose
heart. She knew what she wanted and did not hold back in spite of the dangers: she
asked to be accepted formally into the Augustinian Order. Her mind and heart were
already Augustinian; in 1625, Father Francis admitted her into the Third Order of Saint
Augustine. In 1632 the Augustinian friars, who had been her spiritual counselors, were
burned alive. This holocaust was recognized and solemnly proclaimed by Pope Pius IX
in 1876. Magdalene kept alive the memory of these holy friars, and with it grew her own
desire for martyrdom. Now her counselors in the struggle were two other Augustinians,
Fathers Melchior of Saint Augustine and Martin of Saint Nicholas, who continued to
nourish her spirit on the ideals and practices of Augustinian spirituality. When these two
friars were also put to death, she turned to Father Jordan of Saint Stephen, a
Dominican whose own religious profession was based on the Rule of St. Augustine.
Blessed Magdalene’s concern for her vocation and her wish to love completely the
life of the evangelical counsels led to her decision to enter a novitiate with a community
of Dominican sisters. But before she could make her profession, religious persecution
broke out once again. It was no time for the fainthearted. A strong faith burned in her
soul and the gospel allowed for no half measures.
The brave spirit and conviction of this Augustinian Tertiary moved her to go
voluntarily to the jailers and declare herself a follower of Jesus Christ. There were
threats, tortures, promises of exposure to public scorn, taunts, ridicule all the usual
procedures in such cases. But Magdalene had a clear knowledge of her faith and of the
obligation which she had freely taken on.
Fully dressed in the attire of her Augustinian habit, she reached the end of her
martyrdom on 16 October 1634, after thirteen days of torture, suspended upside down
in a pit of offal. After death her body was burned and her ashes scattered in the bay of
Nagasaki.
Three hundred and forty-seven years later, on 18 February 1981, in the city of
Manila, Pope John Paul II honored Magdalene with the title of Blessed. Then on 18
October 1987, World Mission Day, she was solemnly canonized in Rome by the same
Holy Father. Proclaimed with Saint Magdalene was a large number of martyrs from the
Land of the Rising Sun, of various nationalities and states of life and of different
religious orders. The life of Magdalene, martyr of Japan, honored for the firmness and
courage of her faith, is a song in praise of heroism. To live the gospel as she did with
fervent resolve, in a clear, complete, and radical way, without failing or yielding is the
heritage of great souls. The memory of Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki is celebrated
amongst the Augustinians on 20 October.

http://romanchristendom.blogspot.com/2008/05/saint-of-japan-st-magdalene-of-
nagasaki.html

http://augustinians.net/index.php?page=mnagasaki_en

http://saintscatholic.blogspot.com/2014/02/st-magdalene-of-nagasaki-osa.html

Menos
DETALLES DEL EVENTO
The first Augustinian missionaries reached Japan in 1602, the first Recollects twenty
years later. Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans were also working there. The Orders
saw this vast and mysterious empire as a great challenge to their faith and missionary
zeal. At first there was a period of success, with many converts and new churches. The
Orders received their first Japanese novices and were able to introduce their traditional
devotions, receiving committed lay people into their confraternities and Third Orders.
Magdalene of Nagasaki was a young girl from a devout Christian background who
became an Augustinian Recollect tertiary, died a martyr for the Faith when still in her
early 20’s, and is now patroness of the Secular Augustinian Recollects, the Third Order
of today.
Magdalene was born about the year 1611 near Nagasaki, the city where most of
Japan’s new Christians lived or sought refuge on the outbreak of persecution. Her
family appear to have been reasonably well-off and very much involved in the life of the
Christian community. But she was still very young, probably about thirteen, when her
parents and older siblings were arrested and martyred for their faith. She found a new
family in the close-knit Christian community and its missionaries and she gave her
young life to helping them.
She was particularly close to the Augustinian Recollects Francis of Jesus and Vincent of
St Augustine. She assisted Francis as interpreter and catechist and he later received
her profession as a member of the Third Order. But Magdalene was orphaned a second
time when Francis and Vincent – among the beatified martyrs we remember on 28th
September – were burned to dearth on Nagasaki’s «Hill of the Martyrs» in 1632. She
would have witnessed the horrific deaths by burning, beheading, crucifixion and
dreadful torture of many more missionaries and lay Christians.
Her faith held strong and she continued to exercise a ministry of catechizing, caring and
encouraging among the persecuted Christian community that gave her the reputation of
a deaconess. After the martyrdom of Blesses Francis and Vincent, quickly followed by
that of two other Recollects, Blessed Martin and Melchior, Magdalen was helped and
guided by Dominican missionaries. After two years ministering to the persecuted
Christians in the hills around Nagasaki, witnessing heroic martyrdoms but also sad
betrayals and desertions, Magdalene felt she could best serve this community by
handing herself over to the authorities and taking the consequences. This she bravely
did in September, 1634.
In ways reminiscent of the martyrdoms of young girls like St Cecilia in the days of the
Roman Empire Magdalene had to face all kinds of promises and threats from her
persecutors. When all this failed to produce the apostasy which was the main aim of the
authorities she was subjected to horrendous torture and death. First she was left
hanging for several hours by her arms until the ropes broke and she fell to the ground.
Then she had bamboo spikes stuck under her fingernails and she was forced to scratch
and claw the ground. Next came sadistic variations on the water torture, forcing the
victim to swallow large quantities of water and then applying pressure to force the water,
tinged with blood, out of mouth, nose and other organs. Eventually the torturers had to
give up. Magdalene was returned to a cage in the gaol and left in dreadful pain to await
execution. The day arrived in early October. Magdalene was taken from her prison and
paraded on horseback through the streets of the city with a placard hanging from her
neck announcing her crime as refusing to abandon her Christian faith. Witnesses later
testified that she was dressed in her habit and cincture as an Augustinian Recollect
tertiary.
Ten other Christians, of whom she seemed to be the leader and inspiration, were to die
with her. On reaching the «Hill of the Martyrs» the executioners hung Magdalene
upside-down from a gallows over a pit dug in the ground. Hers was to be the most
dreadful of all the barbaric forms of execution used in the persecution. With her arms
bound to her sides she was lowered up to her waist into the pit which was then covered
over with boards to make breathing even more difficult. Blood would naturally flow to the
head but to prevent a quick death from congestion cuts were made with a knife to her
temples and blood trickled out.
The executioners waited in vain for any sign of recanting, but Magdalene only continued
to pray, even sing hymns, according to witnesses. She was said to have survived in this
terrible state and without food or drink for thirteen days. She was let fall into the pit
which had partly filled with rainwater and she died from drowning. To avoid having relics
kept by the Christians Magdalene’s body was burnt and her ashes scattered on the sea
in Nagasaki Bay. Her martyrdom made a great impression on the Christian community
as well as on a number of Portugese merchants who frequented the area. Many of
these were later deported to Macao where number of Japanese Christians would also
be exiled. As a result evidence could be collected from numerous witnesses about the
life and martyrdom of the Augustinian martyrs of Japan and Magdalene in particular.
Though this was done in the 1630’s it was not till 1981 that Magdalene of Nagasaki was
beatified, together with a number of Dominican martyrs, by Pope John Paul II. She was
canonized with the same companions and by the same Pope in Rome on 18th October,
1987
http://www.agustinosrecoletos.com/events/st-magdalene-of-nagasaki-virgin-and-
martyr/?lang=en

October 20: Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki, virgin and martyr

Christian parents. While she was still young her mother, father, and siblings were
martyred for the faith. In 1624 she became acquainted with two Augustinians, members
of the Recollect Congregation, Francis of Jesus and Vincent of Saint Anthony, and was
attracted by their deep spirituality. She became an Augustinian tertiary, teaching
catechism to the young, seeking alms for the poor, encouraging her people in times of
persecution. When these two friars were martyred, she placed herself under the spiritual
guidance of two other Augustinians who eventually also received the crown of
martyrdom. In 1629 she sought refuge in the hills of Nagasaki, sharing the sufferings of
her fellow Christians, baptizing the young and visiting the sick. Because many
Christians were renouncing their faith in the face of torture, she decided to encourage
them through her own acceptance of persecution. In September 1634, dressed in the
habit of a tertiary, she turned herself in to the anti-Christian civil authorities. In October
of that same year she was subjected to the torture of the pit for 13 days. On the last day
the pit was filled with water and she was drowned. Her body was burned and her ashes
were dispersed to prevent the Christians from having any relics of her. Magdalene was
beatified in 1981 and canonized by John Paul II on October 18, 1987.

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Saint Magdalene
followed the example of Jesus by accepting physical suffering in order to strengthen the
spiritual resolve of her fellow Christians. She is a convincing example of a young person
totally devoted to the Gospel and the service of others, whose love for God and
neighbor knew no limit.

https://augustinianchurches.wordpress.com/category/augustinian-saints-philippines/