Volume 32 / Book 2 — Chapter XXX

The state of the province, and the persecution in Japon

[The religious in Japon were at this time greatly afflicted. One of the persecutors, Feyzo, strove to force his own mother by hunger to give up the faith from which he was himself a renegade. This man captured Father Baltazar de Torres, a religious of the Society of Jesus, who had been his own father in the faith, and imprisoned him. On the twentieth of July four religious of the Society of Jesus, with five of their servants, were burned at the stake. The persecution was most bitter at Omura, where the holy father Fray Luis Beltran (of Exarch) then was. He was a native of Barcelona, and received the habit in the convent of Sancta Catarina Martir in that city. He was sent to the college of Origuela, where even during the time of his studies he devoted himself to prayer and spiritual exercises. He volunteered for the Philippinas, reaching Manila in 1618. After learning the language of the Indians of that region, who are called Tagalos, he also learned that of the Chinese, ministering in both languages up to the year 1622, when he was sent to Japon to assist in consoling the afflicted Japanese. He came in disguise, and very soon learned the language of that country; and he labored for three years with great effect in the kingdom of Omura. He foresaw that he was to suffer death by martyrdom. He was serving in a hut of lepers when he was betrayed to the judge. While in prison his very jailers showed him respect.]