![]() ![]() ![]() In honor of that restoration, the French missionary Bernard Petitjean established the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, constructed on the site where, for two centuries, “hidden Catholics” were forced to trample upon crucifixes and medallions depicting the Virgin Mary. In largely Catholic Nagasaki, the faith went underground during the Tokugawa shogunate, and it wouldn’t be until the nineteenth century that Christians would once again worship openly. Such a demeaning execution was meant to evoke the most famous of crucifixions, when Christ yelled out “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and seemed to briefly consider atheism. There, seventeen Japanese Franciscans, three Japanese Jesuits, four Spanish Franciscans, and a Portuguese and Mexican member of that same order were crucified. On a February day in 1597, flurries of snow caught in the low winter sun, twenty-six priests in rough woolen black and brown cassocks were marched through Nagasaki toward Nishizaka Hill. ![]()
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