Biography
Peter Sukejiro
About Peter Sukejiro
Peter Sukejiro is remembered among the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan for helping prisoners on their journey toward execution. He began that journey as a companion caring for their needs and became one of the condemned. His story survives chiefly through accounts of the group, rather than a detailed record of his earlier life.
Bishop Osamu Mizobe retold the episode in a 2005 lecture drawing on Luís Fróis’s account of the martyrdoms. According to Mizobe, the Jesuit priest Organtino sent Peter to accompany the twenty-four prisoners who were being taken to Nagasaki. Peter walked beside them and attended to practical needs, including bringing water to those who were thirsty. The account remembers assistance that was ordinary in its form but dangerous in its circumstances.
Mizobe relates that an official questioned Peter about whether he was a Christian. After he acknowledged his faith, he was added to the prisoners. This later retelling conveys the circumstances of his arrest; its dialogue should not be treated as a verbatim transcript.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia identifies him as a Japanese layman previously baptized by Jesuits.
Another man, Francis Kichi, also joined the prisoners and was arrested. Their addition brought the company to twenty-six: three Jesuits, six Franciscans and seventeen laypeople. Peter should therefore not be confused with Peter Baptist, the Franciscan priest who belonged to the same group.
They were crucified at Nagasaki on February 5, 1597, and canonized on June 8, 1862.
Futamatagawa Church honors these martyrs collectively as its patrons.
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