Jacint Orfanell
Feast: 10 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Hyacinth Orfanell, baptised Pedro, was a Dominican priest born at La Jana in Castellón, Spain, in 1578. He worked in Japan for years in disguise, wrote a history of the Church in Japan, and after a year in the prison of Omura was burned alive at Nagasaki on 10 September 1622, the last of his group to die, calling on Jesus and Mary.
He is one of the 205 martyrs killed in Japan for the Catholic faith between 1617 and 1632 whom Pius IX declared Blessed on 7 July 1867.
The miracles
In 1867 Pius IX approved four signs in the cause of the 205 martyrs of Japan; the source does not describe them.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Spanish Dominican missionary and chronicler of the Japanese Church, burned alive at Nagasaki.
- Conferenza Episcopale Italiana - Santo del giorno, 10 settembre (Martirologio Romano)
- Dominican Order, Vicariate of Spain - IV Centenario de la gran persecución en Japón 1622 (Fr Jarvis Sy OP)
- Acta Sanctae Sedis 2 (1867), pp. 478-481 and 638-641 - decrees of Pius IX on the 205 martyrs of Japan (1617-1632)
- Directorio Franciscano (Franciscan Order, Spain) - Beatos Ricardo de Santa Ana y compañeros, mártires de Japón (beatification of the 205 on 7 July 1867)
- Wikidata Q11927076 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.