- Luis Sotelo
Infobox Saint
name= Blessed Luis Sotelo
birth_date=September 6, 1574
death_date=1624
feast_day=
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church
imagesize= 250px
caption= Luis Sotelo, discussing withHasekura Tsunenaga and other Japanese in Rome. Sala Regia,Quirinal Palace , Rome.
birth_place=
death_place=
titles= Martyr
beatified_date=1867
beatified_place=
beatified_by=Pope Pius IX
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=
patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=Luis Sotelo (
September 6 ,1574 -1624), was aFranciscan friar who died as amartyr in Japan, in 1624, and was beatified byPope Pius IX in 1867.Sotelo was born in
Sevilla ,Spain , and studied at theUniversity of Salamanca before entering the convent of "Calvario de los Hermanos Menores". He was sent, in 1600, to thePhilippines , in order to take on the spiritual needs of the Japanese settlement ofDilao , until it was destroyed by Spanish forces, in 1608, after intense fighting.In 1608,
Pope Paul V authorized minor religious orders (Dominicans and Franciscans) to proselytize in Japan, heretofore the preserve of theJesuits . Sotelo immediately went to Japan and took a leading role there.Proselytism in Edo
Sotelo then went to Japan where he tried to establish a Franciscan church in the area of
Tokyo . The church was destroyed, in 1612, following the interdiction ofChristianity in the territories of the Tokugawashogunate on April 21, 1612 (the prohition edicts were a reaction to a bribery scandal between a close collaborator of the Shogun,Okamoto Daihachi , and the Christiandaimyo Arima Harunobu ). Sotelo fled to the northern part of Japan, in the area controlled by thedaimyo of Sendai,Date Masamune , under whom Christianity was still tolerated. He came back to Tokyo the following year and constructed and inaugurated a new church on May 12, 1613, in the area ofAsakusa Torigoe. The Bakufu reacted by arresting the Christians, and Sotelo himself was put in the Kodenma-chō (小伝馬町) prison. Seven fellow Japanese Christians, who had been arrested with Sotelo, were executed onJuly 1 , but Sotelo was freed following a special request by Date Masamune.Embassy project
Sotelo planned and accompanied a Japanese embassy sent by Date Masamune to Spain in 1613. The embassy was headed by
Hasekura Tsunenaga , and crossed the Pacific onboard the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista. He had the Japanese receivebaptism inMadrid , before accompanying them to seePope Paul V inRome .The embassy was a product of political ambitions of Sotelo and Date Masamune. Sotelo tried to establish a diocese on Northern Japan that was to be independent from theJesuit s-controlled diocese of Funai (Nagasaki). His campaign was obstructed by the Portuguese and even failed to gain wide support from the Franciscans because it was linked with his personal ambition for the bishop's post. Date Masamune wanted to trade withNueva España (Mexico ), but it soon became apparent that the trade was too costly.Sotelo accompanied the Japanese embassy back to the Philippines, in 1618, where he remained for some time, because Christianity was being harshly repressed in Japan. He got into trouble from the Church, because he had oversold his achievements in Japan. However, the Catholic Council of the Indies sent him back to Nueva España, in 1620, to pursue his missionary activities there.
Martyrdom in Japan
Sotelo finally managed to infiltrate Japan, in 1622, on-board a Chinese junk, after which he was discovered and imprisoned. After two years in prison, Luis Sotelo was burnt alive, together with two Franciscans, a Jesuit, and a Dominican, at the age of 50.
He was beatified by
Pope Pius IX in 1867.References
*“The Christian century in Japan 1549-1650” C.R. Boxer ISBN 1-85754-035-2
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