Diego Kisai

Life and Ministry

Diego Kisai (also rendered Yakichi Kisai) was a Japanese lay brother affiliated with the Society of Jesus, born approximately in 1533 in Settsu Province, Japan. Details of his early life remain sparse in the historical record, though it is established that he entered Jesuit service as a catechist and lay assistant, working in an administrative and pastoral support capacity at the Jesuit residence in Osaka. His precise date of entry into formal Jesuit association is not definitively recorded, but he served under the direction of the Jesuit mission operating in Japan during the period of relative toleration under Oda Nobunaga and the early years of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rule. The political climate shifted sharply in 1597 when Hideyoshi, responding to a combination of perceived foreign political threats and domestic anxieties surrounding the growth of Christianity, ordered the arrest of a group of Franciscan missionaries and their associates. Kisai was among those apprehended in Osaka in early January 1597. During the forced march from Kyoto to Nagasaki, Kisai was admitted to full Jesuit vows by Fr. Pasio, the Jesuit Vice-Provincial, an act of formal religious profession made under extraordinary circumstances. He was among the group of twenty-six Christians, comprising Franciscan friars, Jesuit priests and brothers, and Japanese laypeople, condemned to crucifixion. Kisai was approximately sixty-four years of age at the time of his death. He was beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 and canonized by Pope Pius IX on June 8, 1862, along with the other twenty-five martyrs of the group. Sources: Hubert Cieslik, S.J., 'The Case of Christovão Ferreira,' Monumenta Nipponica (1974); C.R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650 (1951); Léon Pagès, Histoire de la religion chrétienne au Japon (1869–1870).

Circumstances of Death

On February 5, 1597, Diego Kisai was crucified on a hill outside Nagasaki, at the site subsequently known as Nishizaka. He and twenty-five companions were fastened to crosses and executed by piercing with lances, the standard method employed by Japanese authorities for this form of capital punishment. The executions were carried out under orders from Toyotomi Hideyoshi as a public deterrent against Christian practice and missionary activity. Kisai was approximately sixty-four years old at the time.

Legacy

Diego Kisai was beatified in 1627 under Pope Urban VIII and canonized on June 8, 1862, by Pope Pius IX as one of the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan, the first canonization of Japanese martyrs. The site of execution at Nishizaka in Nagasaki is today marked by a monument and the adjacent Martyrs' Museum. The feast day of the Twenty-Six Martyrs is observed on February 6 in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar. Kisai is venerated as a significant figure in the history of Catholic Christianity in Japan.