Readings – Book of Sirach 47:2-11; Ps. 18(17):31, 47, 50, 51; Mark 6:14-29.
Some Notes on Today’s Saints —
Born in Avila, Spain, in 1542, Pedro Bautista y Belasquez (Peter Baptist) joined the Franciscan Order at 20. He did missionary work in Mexico before he arrived in the Philippines in 1584 at 42. He had acquired fame as a preacher in the cathedral of Toledo in Spain and had taught philosophy, and was a good musician.
He taught music for a while and became a parish priest of Lumban, Laguna, and later reluctantly accepted his election as Superior of all the Franciscans in the Philippines. He regularly visited the Franciscans from Bulacan to Sorsogon. He helped in the foundation of many towns in Bicol, Laguna, Bulacan and Tayabas. The 1st Franciscan churches made of stone outside Manila are attributed to him.
In 1587, he wrote a letter to the King of Spain and to the Pope, asking for more missionaries. He sent Fray Francisco de Sta. Maria and some friars to deliver the letter. On the way to Spain, the ship was forced by bad weather to Borneo. They were killed by the Moslems and thus the young friars became the 1st protomartyrs of the Franciscan province.
He received a donation of an estate of some 250 hectares from Governor Santiago de Vera. In this place, popularly called San Francisco del Monte, he built a convent and a church, a novitiate and a place of retreat for missionaries. This became a central place for the Franciscans.
He was a very effective preacher. Many soldiers even became Franciscan friars. He advocated justice, charity, and freedom for innocent and maltreated natives and severely criticized government officials who were abusive to them.
In 1590, he learned that there were no more priests in Japan as a result of the persecutions there. Jesuit missionaries were exiled in 1587. In 1592, when the Japanese emperor threatened to invade the Philippines, Fray Bautista was chosen to negotiate for peace. In May 1593, Fray Bautista, Bro. Gonzalo Garcia, who knew Japanese, and 2 companions, sailed for Japan.
He succeeded in winning a peace treaty and even obtained permission to preach Christianity. Fray Francisco and Fray Martin later joined them in Japan. They worked in Miyako (now Kyoto) and later in Nagasaki. They built churches, hospitals, and convents and converted many pagans to the faith.
In 1596, a Spanish galleon bound for Mexico was blown by a storm to the shores of Japan. The captain of the ship bragged about the Spanish king and said that the missionaries had been sent to prepare for the conquest of Japan.
Enraged, the Japanese ruler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, began persecuting Christians. Fray Bautista and 25 others (6 Franciscans, the Jesuit Paul Miki, two other Jesuits, and 15 Franciscan tertiaries) were imprisoned in Miyako and were made to march for 4 weeks to Nagasaki.
At Nagasaki, on 05 February 1597, they were raised on crosses and speared to death. From the cross, Paul Miki forgave the executioners. Fray Bautista was ecstatic and absorbed in prayer, while his companions were being speared. He was the last to be executed. Their bodies were left on the cross for some time to deter people from becoming Christians. The place became a pilgrimage and became known as Martyrs Hill.
The martyrs were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1862. Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit, was chosen as the leading figure to highlight that he is the 1st Japanese Saint. Here in the Philippines, St. Pedro Bautista is the leading martyr of the group. The Santuario de San Pedro Bautista in Quezon City stands on the foundations of the church and convent built by St. Pedro Bautista.
He worked only for nine years in the Philippines. It is said that one year before his martyrdom, he was chosen to be the Bishop of Camarines (Caceres), but the Royal Cedula arrived in the Philippines only after his death.
Today’s feast calls us to have a deep and steadfast commitment to our faith, to have the courage to keep it despite the most serious threats, and to have an abiding love for Jesus. Our following him even unto the Cross is possible only through prayer and the grace of God.
Prayer — O God, strength of all the Saints, who through the Cross were pleased to call the martyrs Saint Pedro Bautista and companions to life, grant, we pray, that by their intercession we may hold with courage, even until death, to the faith that we profess, through Christ our Lord. Amen.