SANTA MAGDALENA DE NAGASAKI
c. 1610 - 1634
Dominican Tertiary
Sister Magdalena was born in Nagasaki about the year 1610 of Christian parents.
She was left on her own resources at the age of twenty-two when her parents perished in the great persecution in Japan.
Left orphan and imbued by a profound religious spirit, she made a vow of perpetual virginity and dedicated herself to prayer and works of apostolate.
She placed herself under the direction of a Dominican father, Fr. Jordan de San Esteban, OP, and received the habit as a tertiary.
When her spiritual director was imprisoned, Magdalena presented herself to the authorities confessing her faith and offering herself for martyrdom.
She was submitted to varied and terrible tortures and finally executed in the torture of the gallows and the pit on the 15th of October 1634.
Her body was reduced to ashes.
She was beatified with the illustrious group of San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila by Pope John Paul II on February 18, 1981 at the Luneta, in the Philippines, the first beatification to be held outside of the Vatican.
The same Pontiff also approved their canonisation at St. Peter's in Rome on October 18, 1987.
Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
V. Pray for us Blessed Magdalena,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let Us Pray:
O God, fountain and origin of all fatherhood, you made Blessed Magdalena faithful to the Cross of Christ to the point of shedding their blood; grant through their intercession, that, spreading Your love among the brethren, we may be called and become in reality Your Children. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
FEASTDAY: September 28
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