confined to a cage for four years; in the same year Father Constanzo was
burnt alive and Father Carvalho froze to death after being thrown into an
ice pond with some of his converts; in 1626, the Jesuit Provincial, Father de
Couros, expired after spending many months hiding and suffering in a pit;
his successor, Father Sebastian Vieyra, was arrested and put to death in
1632; in 1633, twenty-four Jesuits received the martyr’s crown; Father
Mastrilli was beheaded in 1637; and Father Anthony Rubino and four other
Jesuits were executed after seven months’ torture in 1643.
Only one Jesuit apostatized in the midst of all this––Father Christopher
Ferreyra. After five hours of torture he surrendered and became a turncoat,
assisting the Japanese authorities over the next nineteen years to hunt down
and arrest his former brothers. In 1652, however, he confessed himself a
traitor and announced his desire to return to his Order and God. Sixty-eight
hours of torture failed to break him, and Father Christopher died purified
by his repentance and suffering.
In addition to the great missionaries and martyrs, there have been many
other outstanding Jesuit saints:
St. Francis Borgia: the princely Spaniard who renounced a life of
worldly honors to become the third General of the Order.
St. Stanislaw Kostka: the holy Polish youth who spent just ten
months in the Order before his death at the age of eighteen. Despite
the fact that his profound humility shrouded many of his gifts, his
reputation had spread far and wide, as evidenced by the throngs
that came to venerate his remains.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga: another youth of Italian background and
angelic innocence who died at the early age of twenty-one while
nursing the sick in Roman hospitals.
St. Peter Canisius: the great apologist and missionary of Germany
where, for fifty years, he labored through preaching and writing for
the salvation of souls. His catechism, a masterpiece of brevity and
clarity, was translated into every European language.
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