February 8 - Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs

Paul had been called to preach a Gospel that the world found foolish yet was truer than any story ever told. Paul had been charged to tell the grand story of how God had created humans in God's own image but humanity had turned its back upon God. In the stunning climax, God became human to redeem those whom God loved even as they continued to reject God. For being a preacher and a storyteller, he was regarded as an oddity in Japan at first. Eventually, though, this surprise turned to hatred as those who came to power had no room in their world for a man like Paul who had turned his back upon his nation in their estimation. By swearing their allegiance to God, Paul and his fellow Christians threatened the power that the ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi--known as Taikosama--held.

Ironically, the rulers an leaders of Japan had initially been the ones who welcomed Christian missionaries to Japanese shores. They had welcomed them gladly because they knew that Western powers endorsed the Christian churches and they suspected that this would increase trade possibilities. Further, the rulers had grown somewhat uncomfortable with the Buddhist monks who would not do as they told them to do and felt that an influx of Christianity could limit the power of the monks. Yet, as Christianity grew in both Japan and the Philippines, they became aware that it demanded more and more allegiance from its members than they were comfortable with their citizens giving away. Further, it seemed that the politically savvy among the western powers knew better how to manipulate the Christian churches to gain power in foreign locations. Soon, Christianity was banned in Japan and those who swore allegiance to Jesus were executed for it. Ministers and vocal Christians were martyred and persecuted. Paul and his companions were twenty-six of the victims.

They were arrested and charged with being Christians. They refused to deny their faith and so they were gathered in chains and sentenced to march to Nagasaki while singing a hymn--for all six hundred miles. It took nearly thirty days for the soon-to-be-martyrs to arrive in Nagasaki and they greeted the day that they arrived with renewed singing and rejoicing. They were brought before twenty-six crosses and they met them with joy. One of the twenty-six, a man named Gonsalo, rushed forward unaware of how tragic this experience was supposed to be and pointed at a nearby cross, "Is this one mine?" he asked hopefully. Taken aback, nobody responded to him at first but eventually one of the soldiers indicated which cross was his. He knelt down and embraced it with tears in his eyes. Slowly, they were affixed to their crosses while they sang hymns and joked with each other. Paul was so short that when bound to the cross his feet could not reach the support and so they were forced to bind him to the cross by tying him under his arms and across his chest. One soldier stepped on Paul's chest as he tightened the knot and a minister among them complained at the brutality but Paul insisted that it was okay because the man was just doing his job.

Once the crosses were raised Paul began preaching to the awestruck crowd. They had come to see the power of the Japanese rulers and had found willing martyrs proclaiming life even as they slipped into death. The soldiers were amazed and some were converted. The crowds listened to Paul as he preached and proclaimed his own forgiveness of the people and the powers who persecuted and executed the Body of Christ. All twenty-six of them died as the powers of Japan tried to prove their dominance. All they had proven was that despite their own political machinations, the Kingdom of God had arrived in Japan and could not be turned back.

February 7 - Helder Camara, Priest, Bishop, Friend of the Poor

Helder was the eleventh of thirteen children born in Northeastern Brazil to a middle class family with roots in the Roman Catholic church. Much to the pain of Helder and his family, five of his brothers and sisters died from the flu epidemic that swept through Brazil claiming souls in 1905 (four years before Helder was born). Even as a child, he showed an interest in the priesthood. His priests and family would often remark to him that they felt something special about him and would ask him if he knew what it meant to be a priest. One of his priests even went so far as to tell him that to be a priest was forever and it meant he would never be his own and would always be pouring himself out for others. This didn't deter young Helder and he continued holding mock masses in his home on an alter he built out of boxes and playthings.

As he grew, he followed God's willing and ended up studying to become a priest. It wasn't especially uncommon for young Brazilian boys in Northeastern Brazil to become priests since it was a region that placed a high value upon the priesthood. But it was surprising that Helder was ordained at the age of twenty-two. He had to receive special dispensation to be ordained prior to the age of twenty-four but it was given and he took his vows. This new avowed state was a good fit for Helder and he spent his time as a minister of a church but, also, as an advocate for the poor. Like many Brazilian priests of the time he was heavily invested in liberation theology and social justice ministries. Eventually, he became bishop and then archbishop and this allowed him to set the tone and pace for ministry within Brazil. Even when he had taken on the political roles of an archbishop he still did not fail to advocate for the poor.

Helder is perhaps best remembered for a quote that summed up his professional life: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." For his work as a friend of the poor he was nominated for a Nobel peace prize and received the Pacem in Terris award. Though he was not poor, he became associated with the slums. Though he was not oppressed, he became associated with the weak and disenfranchised. Being a priest was a forever commitment and Helder lived into it. When he was vilified and slandered he reminded himself that he had been called not to a profession but to a way of life and part of that way of life was a devotion to pouring himself out for the least of his brothers and sisters. Helder died in 1999.

February 6 - Dorothea of Caesarea, Martyr, Virgin, Wife of Christ

Dorothea's parents had been martyrs. This filled her with a painful mixture of joy and sorrow since she rejoiced at their courage and reward but mourned the world's loss. Diocletian had ordered them dead as part of his widespread persecutions and those who were hoping to gain the emperor's favor were only all too willing to spill blood to earn it. Dorothea was also a Christian but there were other plans for her. The governor--Sapricius--had her brought before him and he demanded that she take a husband. He did this because he knew she had committed herself to celibacy and devotion to Jesus and he felt that if he could shake her from this devotion, then he would be able to bring about her conversion to the Empire and away from Christianity. She refused immediately, insisting that she was already married to Jesus, and was forced upon the rack and stretched. The tension was set high enough to bring agony but not death and she was offered a choice: take a husband, renounce her faith, and live or refuse and die. She refused.

Sapricius was not ready to kill the woman, yet, and had another idea for how he might effect her conversion. After all, Christians seemed to be producing conversions constantly--surely the emperor could convert people just as easily. He sent her to prison and had two women--Christina and Callista--visit her daily. Christina and Callista had once been Christians and had renounced their faith under threat of torture and death. When faced with the terror of the Empire, they folded and bowed themselves before the emperor as lord. After their bitter renunciations, they fell headlong into lives of sin and darkness. Their every day was marked by regret and sorrow but they didn't admit to erring by renouncing their faith--sometimes, we hold onto a bad decision because it's the only thing we feel we have left to hold onto. They sought out lives of empty pleasure and sin to fill the hole that had been left in them but found no respite in evil. Their task was to convert Dorothea away from her faith as they had been converted but it was Christina and Callista that were converted back by, Dorothea, to the faith they had abandoned. They found joy again and paid for it with their lives--being tied together and boiled to death--but this they did willingly and Sapricius brought Dorothea before him again.

When Dorothea arrived she thanked Sapricius for the opportunity to bring life to her sisters walking in death and made sure he knew she wouldn't have had the opportunity if not for his imprisonment and scheming. He offered her one last chance--perhaps hoping that the brutality of the deaths of Christina and Callista might have changed her mind--but wasn't surprised when she refused. He ordered her to be decapitated in public. As she was being taken away from Sapricius, one of his advisers called to her in a mocking voice, "You're married to Jesus, right? Please send some of your husband's apples or roses from his garden to me when you see him."

He laughed but Dorothea responded, "I shall do it." As they dragged her to the place of her execution she was met by a young girl bearing a gift of three roses and three apples on a tray. Dorothea recognized that this "young girl" was an angel sent by God and asked the girl to take the roses and the apples to the advisor who had mocked her. She was then bound and decapitated. She became a martyr. The advisor, however, was shocked to receive a gift from a young girl--three roses and three apples. He was shocked--apples and roses didn't grow in Caesarea that time of year--and shaken. Soon after, he converted to Christianity and followed after Dorothea's husband whom he had mocked. Shortly before being martyred himself, he changed his name to Theophilus--lover of God.

February 5 - Agatha of Sicily, Martyr, Virgin, Victim of Persecution

Agatha had done at least two unthinkable things in polite Roman society. The first had been becoming a Christian. At the time in which Agatha devoted herself to her crucified Lord, Christianity was a persecuted and detested religion considered to be comprised of atheist (they denied the existence of the Roman gods), incestuous (husband and wife called each other brother and sister) cannibals (they met at night in secret and were said to eat the flesh and drink the blood of their Lord). For a beautiful and wealthy woman like Agatha this was unthinkable. The Romans could understand why the poor became Christians but it was incredible to them that a woman with so much to lose would risk everything by faith. They didn't understand her or her Lord. The other great unthinkable thing had been when she refused the advances of the prefect Quinctianus.

Under the persecutions of Decius, Quinctianus realized he had a unique opportunity. He lusted after young Agatha and made his carnal desires known to her. She rejected his proposals and continued on in her faith as a woman committed to maintaining her virginity before her Lord. Since she was committed to celibacy she was not going to take any husband let alone a prefect of the Roman Empire that wanted to kill her and all her brothers and sisters in the Faith. He engineered a plan to blackmail her into having sex within him whenever he wanted it. He threatened to turn her over to the authorities and have her executed as a Christian. He insisted that he would protect her if she would become his mistress. She insisted that she was a virgin and intended to remain celibate so he had her taken to a brothel so that she might be raped and stripped of the virginity that perplexed Quinctianus. She was able to withstand the advances of the men at the brothel and eventually was turned out of the brothel because she was causing too great a spectacle and distraction.

Quinctianus brought her before him again and threatened with torture and death if she would not give into this lust. She continued to refuse and so he had men come in and secure her. First her breasts were crushed and then they were savagely cut from her body. Quinctianus watched while this evil was perpetrated and Agatha had a few words for him: “Cruel man, have you forgotten your mother and the breast that nourished you, that you dare to mutilate me this way?” But Quinctianus was not deterred and ordered Agatha to be burnt to death--naked and in public. Bleeding, she was paraded before the people and brought to the place of her intended execution. Yet, as they prepared to finalize this atrocity, an earthquake shook the city. She was taken back to a prison cell and died there from her wounds. She died a martyr who did the unthinkable and refused to be deterred from her life of devotion and faith.