Jerome de Angelis (, 1567 – 4 December 1623) was an Italian

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. He was

beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...

in 1867.

Life

He was born Girolamo degli Angeli at Castro-Giovanni, Sicily. Woods, Joseph. "Girolamo degli Angeli." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 24 April 2020 He studied law in Palermo before entering the Society of Jesus at

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

in 1586. He was assigned to the Japanese mission and left Lisbon in April 1596, in company with 7 other Jesuits destined for Japan. Storms disrupted his journey and took him to Brazil, Puerto Rico and England (after being captured by an English ship). He and Charles Spinola spent 2 months together in England before getting back to Lisbon in January 1598. He set out again in 1599 with Charles Spinola and three others, bound for the College in Goa, to complete his studies in anticipation of ordination. Degli Angelis arrived in Nagasaki in 1602 and worked in the area of what is now Tokyo. He remained there after the publication of the edict expelling all Christian missionaries from the country in 1614. In 1618, the first European on

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

, he was the first missionary to reach Yezo and the

Ainu people The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...

. De Angelis, after making many converts to Christianity, seeing that his neophytes were cruelly persecuted because of his presence among them and his preaching, gave himself up to the authorities in 1623. Condemned to death, he underwent public execution by fire on 4 December 1623 during the

Great Martyrdom of Edo The Great Martyrdom of Edo was the execution of 50 foreign and domestic Catholic Church, Catholics (''kirishitans''), who were burned alive for their Christianity in Edo (modern-day Tokyo), Japan, on 4 December 1623. The mass execution was part ...

Veneration

De Angelis' sainthood cause was opened after his death. He was later

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Angelis, Jerome De 1567 births 1623 deaths 16th-century Italian Jesuits 17th-century Italian Jesuits Italian Roman Catholic missionaries Italian beatified people 17th-century venerated Christians 17th-century executions by Japan Italian people imprisoned in Japan People executed by Japan by burning Italian people executed abroad Jesuit missionaries in Japan 17th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Jesuit martyrs