The arrest of the holy Fray Jacintho Orfanel; the narrowness of his
prison, and the great miseries of it; his martyrdom, and the marvelous
fruits which followed from his captivity.
[Though most of the fathers had remained in the cities of the Japanese,
others wandered through the mountains and in thinly populated places,
where they suffered even greater hardships than the former class, as
they ministered to their faithful sons in those desolate regions. Among
these was the holy Fray Jacintho Orfanel. Being lean, swarthy and
tall, it was difficult for him to disguise himself, since the Japanese
are generally short, broad-shouldered, and fair-skinned. Even if his
secular habit had disguised him so far as his external appearance went,
the modesty and gravity of his behaviour would have been sufficient
to betray him. While he was resting in Nangasaqui for a time to
recover from an illness, he was betrayed by a renegade Christian and
arrested. Boldly avowing who he was, he was sent to the prison of Omura
to join the rest of the prisoners, who received him with the Te Deum
laudamus, as at the entry of a prince or papal legate. Merely to hear
the description of their prison causes horror, it was so small and so
wretched. The persecutors permitted them no materials for writing, and
no implements made of iron, so that their nails and their hair grew
long. They were not allowed to wash or to change their clothes. The
guards were changed constantly, that they might form no friendship with
the prisoners. This severity, which was intended to alarm the other
ministers of the gospel who were in Japon, if there were any, had
no such effect. The imprisoned Japanese showed the greatest courage,
and their wives desired to follow them into their imprisonment. The
captive Christians spent all that time in holy exercises, prayers,
the singing of psalms, the keeping of the hours, and the celebration of
the mass. The conduct of the Spanish prisoners was such as to overthrow
the false opinion spread through Japon by the Dutch, that the fathers
were spies of the king of España. Their sufferings and their martyrdom
encouraged the Christians in the faith. From the prison the fathers
wrote encouraging letters to the suffering Christians of Japon. They
also wrote to their brethren in Manila.]