Gonsalo Garcia
Friar Minor, martyr and saint
Feast: 5 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Gonsalo Garcia was born at Bassein in India about 1556, to a Portuguese father and a Canarese mother, and was brought up by the Jesuits. He went with Jesuit missionaries to Japan, where he worked for eight years as a catechist, and later became a merchant. In Manila he came to know the Franciscans and joined them as a lay brother, and in 1592 he sailed for Japan with Peter Baptist on an embassy to the emperor.
In December 1596 the ruler Taiko-Sama, suspecting the missionaries, had them arrested. Garcia was one of twenty-six confessors crucified together on 5 February 1597; he was the first nailed to his cross and died pierced by two lances while singing God's praises. Urban VIII declared the twenty-six Venerable in 1627, and their feast is kept on 5 February.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
An Indian-born Franciscan brother, one of the twenty-six martyrs crucified in Japan in 1597.
Connected on this site
- Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan Saint honoured together
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Gonsalo Garcia
- Wikidata Q1380169 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Gonsalo Garcia (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.