Biography
John Soan de Goto
About John Soan de Goto
John Soan de Goto was born into a Christian family on the Goto Islands. His family moved to Nagasaki to practice their faith. He later lived with the Jesuits in Osaka and worked as a catechist while preparing to enter the Society of Jesus.
Yuki’s personal sketch places his education first with the Jesuits in Nagasaki and then at Shiki in Amakusa, a center that trained catechists and assistants in painting and music. From there he served under Father Morejon in Osaka.
He was arrested with Paul Miki and James Kisai in December 1596. Before their execution, John and James made their first Jesuit vows. The Singapore account remembers John exchanging words of encouragement with his father at the place of death. He was about nineteen.
He was crucified at Nagasaki with the twenty-six martyrs on February 5, 1597. The group was canonized by PiusIX in 1862.
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