I remember avidly studying the life of Hudson Taylor and being amazed at how in the 19th Century he had contextualised the Gospel into Chinese Culture. However this was not new missiological methodology. Francis Xavier the most amazing missionary possibly in History carried the Gospel throughout the far east and his methods in Japan are worth of note. Here is the wiki article on him.
Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y
Azpilicueta (7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552) was
a Roman
Catholic missionary born in the Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain) and co-founder of the Society
of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534.[1] He led an extensive mission into
Asia, mainly in the Portuguese
Empire of the time. He was influential
in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been
visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and
struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less
success than he had enjoyed in India. It was a goal of Xavier to one day reach
China.[1]
In Malacca in December, 1547, Francis Xavier met a Japanese man named Anjirō. Anjirō had
heard of Francis in 1545 and had traveled from Kagoshima to Malacca with the
purpose of meeting with him. Having been charged with murder, Anjirō had fled
Japan. He told Francis extensively about his former life and the customs and
culture of his beloved homeland. Anjiro helped Xavier as a mediator and
translator for the mission to Japan that now seemed much more possible. "I
asked [Anjirō] whether the Japanese would become Christians if I went with him
to this country, and he replied that they would not do so immediately, but
would first ask me many questions and see what I knew. Above all, they would want
to see whether my life corresponded with my teaching."[citation needed]
Anjirō became the first Japanese Christian and adopted the name of
'Paulo de Santa Fe'.
Europeans had already come to Japan: the Portuguese had already landed
in 1543 on the island of Tanegashima, where they introduced the first firearms
to Japan.[10]
He returned to India in January 1548. The next 15 months were occupied
with various journeys and administrative measures in India. Then, due to
displeasure at what he considered un-Christian life and manners on the part of
the Portuguese which impeded missionary work, he traveled from the South into
East Asia. He left Goa on 15 April 1549, stopped at Malacca and visited Canton. He was
accompanied by Anjiro, two other Japanese men, the father Cosme
de Torrès and Brother João Fernandes. He had
taken with him presents for the "King of Japan"
since he was intending to introduce himself as the Apostolic
Nuncio.
Shortly before leaving he had issued a famous instruction to F. Gaspar
Barazeuz who was leaving to go to Ormuz (a kingdom on an island in the Persian
Gulf, now part of Iran), that he should mix with sinners:
And if you wish to bring forth much
fruit, both for yourselves and for your neighbors, and to live consoled,
converse with sinners, making them unburden themselves to you. These are the
living books by which you are to study, both for your preaching and for your
own consolation. I do not say that you should not on occasion read written
books . . . to support what you say against vices with authorities from the
Holy Scriptures and examples from the lives of the saints.
Francis Xavier reached Japan on 27 July 1549, with Anjiro and three
other Jesuits, but he was not permitted to enter any port his ship arrived at[10] until 15 August, when he went ashore at Kagoshima, the
principal port of the province of Satsuma on the island of Kyūshū. As a
representative of the Portuguese king, he was received in a friendly manner. Shimazu
Takahisa (1514–1571), daimyo of Satsuma, gave a
friendly reception to Francis on 29 September 1549, but in the following year
he forbade the conversion of his subjects to Christianity under penalty of
death; Christians in Kagoshima could not be given any catechism in the
following years. The Portuguese missionary Pedro de Alcáçova would later write
in 1554:
In Cangoxima, the first place Father
Master Francisco stopped at, there were a good number of Christians, although
there was no one there to teach them; the shortage of laborers prevented the
whole kingdom from becoming Christian.[10]
He was hosted by Anjiro's family until October 1550. From October to
December 1550, he resided in Yamaguchi.
Shortly before Christmas, he left forKyoto but failed to meet with the Emperor. He returned to Yamaguchi in March,
1551, where he was permitted to preach by the daimyo of the province. However, lacking fluency in the Japanese language, he
had to limit himself to reading aloud the translation of a catechism.
Francis was the first Jesuit to go to Japan as a missionary.[11] He brought with him paintings of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child.
These paintings were used to help teach the Japanese about Christianity. There
was a huge language barrier as Japanese was unlike other languages the
missionaries had previously encountered. For a long time Francis struggled to
learn the language.
Having learned that evangelical poverty had not the appeal in Japan that
it had in Europe and in India, he decided to change his method of approach.
Hearing after a time that a Portuguese ship had arrived at a port in the
province of Bungo in Kyushu and that the prince there would like to see him,
Xavier now set out southward. The Jesuit, in a fine cassock, surplice, and
stole, was attended by thirty gentlemen and as many servants, all in their best
clothes. Five of them bore on cushions valuable articles, including a portrait
of Our Lady and a pair of velvet slippers, these not gifts for the prince, but
solemn offerings to Xavier, to impress the onlookers with his eminence.
Handsomely dressed, with his companions acting as attendants, he presented
himself before Oshindono, the ruler of Nagate, and as a representative of the
great kingdom of Portugal offered him the letters and presents, a musical
instrument, a watch, and other attractive objects which had been given him by
the authorities in India for the emperor.[12]
For forty-five years the Jesuits were the only missionaries in Asia, but
the Franciscans also began proselytizing in Asia as well. Christian
missionaries were later forced into exile, along with their assistants. Some
were able to stay behind, however Christianity was then kept underground as to
not be persecuted.[13]
The Japanese people were not easily converted; many of the people were
already Buddhist or Shinto. Francis tried to combat the disposition of some of
the Japanese that a God who had created everything, including evil, could not
be good. The concept of Hell was also a struggle; the Japanese were bothered by
the idea of their ancestors living in Hell. Despite Francis' different
religion, he felt that they were good people, much like Europeans, and could be
converted.[14][15][16]
Xavier was welcomed by the Shingon monks since he used the word Dainichi for the Christian God; attempting to adapt the concept to local
traditions. As Xavier learned more about the religious nuances of the word, he
changed to Deusu from the Latin and Portuguese Deus. The monks later
realized that Xavier was preaching a rival religion and grew more aggressive
towards his attempts at conversion.
With the passage of time, his sojourn in Japan could be considered
somewhat fruitful as attested by congregations established in Hirado, Yamaguchi
and Bungo. Xavier worked
for more than two years in Japan and saw his successor-Jesuits established. He
then decided to return to India. Historians debate the exact path he returned
back by, but due to evidence attributed to the captain of his ship, he may have
traveled through Tanegeshima and Minato, and avoided Kagoshima due to the
hostility of the Daimyo.[10] During his trip, a tempest forced him to stop on an island near Guangzhou, China
where he saw the rich merchant Diogo Pereira, an old friend from Cochin, who showed
him a letter from Portuguese being held prisoners in Guangzhou asking for a
Portuguese ambassador to talk to the Chinese Emperor in their favor. Later during
the voyage, he stopped at Malacca on 27 December 1551, and was back in Goa by
January, 1552.
On 17 April he set sail with Diogo Pereira, leaving Goa on board the Santa Cruz for China. He introduced himself as
Apostolic Nuncio and Pereira as ambassador of the King of Portugal. Shortly
thereafter, he realized that he had forgotten his testimonial letters as an
Apostolic Nuncio. Back in Malacca, he was confronted by the capitão Álvaro de Ataíde da Gama who now had
total control over the harbor. The capitão refused to recognize his title of
Nuncio, asked Pereira to resign from his title of ambassador, named a new crew
for the ship and demanded the gifts for the Chinese Emperor be left in Malacca.
In late August, 1552, the Santa Cruz reached the Chinese island of Shangchuan,
14 km away from the southern coast of mainland China, near Taishan, Guangdong,
200 km south-west of what later became Hong Kong. At this
time, he was only accompanied by a Jesuit student, Álvaro Ferreira, a Chinese
man called António and a Malabar servant called Christopher. Around mid-November he sent a letter saying
that a man had agreed to take him to the mainland in exchange for a large sum
of money. Having sent back Álvaro Ferreira, he remained alone with António. He
died at Shangchuan from a fever on 3 December 1552, while he was waiting for a
boat that would agree to take him to mainland China.
The Japanese Martyrs
The men, women, and children who died for the faith from 1597 until 1873 in that country. The faith arrived in Japan in 1549, when St. Francis Xavier landed at Satsuma. He was recalled to India in 1551, but he converted more than three thousand Japanese in that brief period. Thirty years later there were 200,000 Christians and 250 churches in Japan, with Jesuits and other missionaries working to spread the faith. Hideyoshi, the acting highest-ranked official of the emperor, the governor, called a taiko, had tolerance for the faith, despite the fear of his court. Many in Japan believed that the Europeans intended to invade the country, and that the Church was only a vanguard. On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians, including eight European missionaries, were publicly crucified at Nagasaki. Hideyoshi ordered the martyrdom in 1597 , and when he died the following year, a period of cooperative calm prevailed. For the next decade and a half the Christians flourished, with 130 Jesuits, joined by 30 Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and some secular priests staffing missions. Unfortunately, Tokugawa Ieyasu, a virulent enemy of the Church, became the shogun of Japan and published an edict abolishing Catholicism.Persecution began again, furthered by Tokugawa’s sons and heirs. In 1622, the “Great Martyrdom” took place at Nagasaki, claiming the lives of more that fifty Japanese and Europeans. Between 1624 and 1627, hundreds more were slain, imprisoned, or exiled. Most were burned alive, crucified, or beheaded, some with small children in their arms. In 1637, some 37,000 Japanese Catholics and their allies entered a fortress on Shimabara Peninsula in northern Kyushu to protest persecution of the Church and tyranny of the local daimyo, or hereditary clan lord. They were slain to a man by the shogun’s troops, aided by a Dutch ship’s cannons. In 1640, four Portuguese ambassadors were arrested and martyred for the faith, and their lesser-ranked entourage exiled. In 1642 and 1648, Jesuits and Dominicans tried to enter Japan and were martyred with unspeakable cruelty. The last known priest who tried to enter Japan was an Italian, Abbe Sidotti, who was arrested in 1708. He was imprisoned on the Kirishitan Zaka, the “Hill of the Christians,” and died there in 1715. There are two large groups of martyrs in Japan, representing the thousands of Christians who died for the faith from about 1614 to 1664. The first party of martyrs was headed by St. Paul Miki, who received canonization in 1862 by Pope Pius IX. A second gathering of martyrs was composed of thirty-six Jesuits, twenty-six Franciscans, twenty-one Dominicans, five Augustinians, and one hundred seven lay men, women, and children. They were beatified over the years by several popes, including Pius IX and Leo XIII. Pope John Paul II has also beatified and canonized several individual martyrs in Japan.2
[1]
Francis Xavier, Acessed at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier
on 7th of February 2013
2. Japenese martyrs, acessed at : http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4773on 7th of February 2013
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