Volume 32 / Book 2 — Chapter XXXII

The great persecution in Japon, and the care of the province to send ministers there

Finally father Fray Domingo Castellet was captured by the diligence of the persecutors. He was born in a village named Esparraguera, in the principality of Cataluña, October 7, 1592. He assumed the habit of our order October 23, 1608, in the convent of Sancta Cathalina Martir at Barcelona. He pursued his studies in the very religious convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia, where he showed great ability. In the year of our Lord 1613, when I was about to make a voyage to the Philippinas Islands as procurator-general for the province of the Holy Rosary of the Order of St. Dominic, and when I came to Sancta Cruz at Segovia searching for religious to accompany me, one of the first who enlisted was father Fray Domingo Castellet. He was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia, where he taught for six years in the new villages called Los Mandayas. In 1621 he was directed to go to Japon, where he showed the greatest intrepidity in danger, and wrought a marvelous work. He was taken by surprise, and was followed to prison by several confessors.]