One of my goals with the Saint stories is to give a sampling of the universal nature of the Church - featuring both men and women, young and old, those who walked with Christ in the flesh . . . and from every period since until our own day. I also like to feature Saints from all over the world. So far this month, I have many European and American Saints, some from the Middle East and North Africa, but I have yet to talk about an Asian - so today's Saint is Blessed Lucy de Freitas from Japan.
Japan was first evangelized in the 16th century. Christian converts were few in number but strong in faith. The earliest converts and their descendants were heavily persecuted by a shogun who aimed to wipe out Christianity. Pope Pius IX beatified 205 of the martyrs of this persecution in 1867 - including Bl. Lucy de Freitas.
Bl. Lucy was the widow of Philip de Freitas from Portugal. She was 80 years old at the time of the shogun's war on Christians. She had become a Franciscan tertiary and spent years in charitable work. She was executed because she had given shelter to a priest. She was burned to death in Nagasaki, Japan on September 10, 1622. September 10 is the feast day of Bl. Lucy and many of the other Japanese martyrs.
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