Pedro Bautista Blásquez was born in Spain in 1542; at the age of 22 he entered the Franciscan Order and after finishing his studies and being a preacher for many years, in 1580 he left as a missionary for Mexico.
Later, he was sent to the Philippines; in Manila where he founded a new Province – which today bears his name – of which he was elected Minister Provicial in 1591. During his ministry many friaries were erected and he himself, barefoot, took the Gospel to all the islands of the archipelago.
His fame as a missionary reached the King of Spain, who wanted to send him as a missionary to Japan. It was here, unfortunately, that his evangelizing work clashed with the political choices of Emperor Hideyoshi, after an initial flourishing phase, in which Peter founded friaries and hospitals in different parts of the country, it was then opposed by a rapid and inexorable decline. The local rulers were opposed to the spread of Christianity in the Empire, so Hideyoshi was forced to ban all Catholic missionaries.
For this reason, fr Peter Baptist, his five confreres and seventeen Franciscan Tertiaries, were arrested and condemned to undergo the torture of crucifixion. Taken to the city of Nagasaki, tortured and exposed to public ridicule, they suffered martyrdom on the 5th February, 1597. Together with them was Paul Miki, the Jesuit, and two of his catechists who were also martyred.
These martyrs were beatified on the 14th September, 1627 by Pope Urban VIII and canonized on the 8th June, 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
Source: OFM
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