Nagasaki, Japan, is familiar to Americans as the city on which the second atomic bomb was dropped, killing hundreds of thousands. Three and a half centuries before, 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki. Among them were priests, brothers and laymen, Franciscans, Jesuits and members of the Secular Franciscan Order; there were catechists, doctors, simple artisans and servants, old men and innocent children--all united in a common faith and love for Jesus and his Church.

He is said to have been the son of Conis and Darerca, the sister of St. Patrick, whom he accompanied to Ireland ...

According to her apochryphal tradition, she was a resident of Caesarea, Cappadocia, who when she refused to ...

This great missionary was born in lower Poitou about the year 584. At the age of twenty, he retired to a ...

Blessed Diego De Avezedo was sent to escort the fiance' of Prince Ferdinand. When he arrived, she had ...

Francis is Japanese from Miako. He became a physician and later was converted to Catholicism by the Franciscan ...

Known also as Vaast, Foster, and Gaston, St. Vedast, a native of western France, is best-known as the catechist of ...

Paul was the son of a Japanese military leader. He was born at Tounucumada, Japan, was educated at the Jesuit ...

Also called Anatolianus, a martyr. He is mentioned by St. Gregory of Tours as one of the martyrs of Auvergne, ...

One of the Japanese Martyrs, an altar boy, aged thirteen. Anthony was a Japanese from Nagasaki and a member of the ...

Martyr of Japan. A native of that nation, Bonaventure was a Franciscan tertiary and a catechist. A companion of ...

Irish Benedictine abbot and bishop, also called Tancho and Tatta. Tanco became a monk and served as abbot of the ...

Martyr, known as Theophilus Scholasticus "the Lawyer." He was beheaded at Caesarea, in ...

Japanese martyr. A native layman, he entered the Franciscans as a tertiary and served as an interpreter for the ...

Japanese martyr. The son of St. Michael Kozaki, he was a boy of fifteen who aided the Franciscan missionaries and ...

Martyrs put to death sometime during the Roman persecutions. The date of their deaths is unknown.

One of the Martyrs of Japan in Nagasaki. He was a native of Japan and a Franciscan tertiary, serving as an ...

Franciscan martyr of Japan. Born in Parilla, Spain, he was a Franciscan lay brother sent to Manila, in the ...

Jesuit martyr in Japan. A native of Japan, he entered the Society of Jesus and worked as a catechist until his ...

Japanese martyr of Japan. He was only nineteen at the time of his crucifixion at Nagasaki with many companions.