Saint Philip of Jesus
Franciscan from Mexico City, martyred at Nagasaki in 1597 in his twenties
- Rank
- Saint
- Kind
- Martyr, Religious, Missionary
- Life
- 1572 – 1597
- Era
- 16th century
- Feast
- 6 February
- Countries
- Mexico, Japan
Life story
Felipe de las Casas was born in 1572 in Mexico City, to parents who had come from Spain. As a young man he entered the Franciscans in Mexico but left them in 1589 and went to the Philippines, where he worked as a merchant and led a worldly life. In Manila he was readmitted to the order in 1590 and took the name Felipe de Jesús.
He was not yet a priest, and his superiors planned for him to be ordained in Mexico. On 12 July 1596 he sailed on the San Felipe for New Spain, but a storm drove the ship onto the coast of Japan, where Franciscans such as Fr. Pedro Bautista were already preaching. The authorities seized the ship, and the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the suspicion that the Spaniards were preparing a conquest was false.
On 8 December 1596 Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the arrest of the Franciscans at Kyoto, where Felipe had gone, together with other Christians. On 3 January 1597 the prisoners had their ears cropped and were paraded through Kyoto, and on 5 February they reached Nagasaki. That day, on a hill above the city, the twenty-six were bound to crosses and pierced with spears. Felipe was in his mid-twenties. According to a legend, a withered fig tree in his father's orchard turned green again on the day he died. He was beatified in 1627 under Urban VIII and canonized with his companions by Pius IX on 8 June 1862. He is regarded as patron of Mexico City.
Works and witness
- Born in 1572 in Mexico City
- Left the Franciscans in 1589 and rejoined them in Manila in 1590, taking the name Felipe de Jesús
- His ship, the San Felipe, was driven onto Japan by a storm in 1596
- Arrested at Kyoto in December 1596 with the Franciscans there
- Put to death at Nagasaki on 5 February 1597; canonized in 1862
Patron of
Mexico City
Saints from the same country
References
- New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia (1911), 'St. Philip of Jesus', newadvent.org/cathen/12006b.htm
- Wikipedia, 'Philip of Jesus' (birth year 1572: cross-check)
Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.