Biography
Thomas Xico
About Thomas Xico
Thomas Xico was a Japanese lay Christian who worked as a medicine seller, catechist and interpreter for Franciscan missionaries. The Secular Franciscan Order also identifies him as Thomas Dank. Its account describes him moving his shop beside the Franciscan convent of Our Lady of the Angels and joining the Franciscan third order.
Historian Mihoko Oka also identifies Thomas the preacher as a Kyoto medicine seller in a study of trade and religious connections.
A profile published by the Diocese of Kyoto names him Thomas Dangi-sha, or Thomas the preacher. It identifies him with Ise and records that, after becoming a Christian, he worked as a catechist for the Franciscans. The profile gives his age as thirty-six and remembers his strong sense of justice. These details distinguish him from the adolescent Thomas Kozaki, another member of the same martyr group.
Thomas was among the twenty-six Christians executed at Nishizaka in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597. They were beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 and canonized by Pope Pius IX on June 8, 1862. The Catholic Church in Japan celebrates their feast on February 5.
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