Lazarus of Kyoto

Who they were

The apostolic letter of beatification describes him as a layman of Kyoto, driven into exile from his own country for the Christian faith, who lived at Manila and attached himself to the Friars Preachers as an interpreter in order to return to Japan; faced with torture he fell into apostasy, but afterwards willingly repaired his fall and was hanged with the others over the pit.

He was beatified at Manila on 18 February 1981 by John Paul II and canonised in Rome on 18 October 1987 with Lorenzo Ruiz and the other martyrs of Nagasaki.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

He is one of the sixteen men and women who, in the words of the canonisation homily, bore witness by their heroic sufferings and death to salvation in Christ in and around Nagasaki between 1633 and 1637.

Connected on this site

• Guillaume Courtet Saint
  “At Nagasaki in Japan, the passion of the holy martyrs Michael de Aozaraza, Guillaume Courtet, Vincent Shiwozuka, priests of the Order of Preachers, Lazarus of Kyoto and Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila, father of a family, who, kept in prison for more than a year for the name of Christ, suffered the torture of the cross and…” — this site's research
• Lorenzo Ruiz Saint
  “He was beatified at Manila on 18 February 1981 by John Paul II and canonised in Rome on 18 October 1987 with Lorenzo Ruiz and the other martyrs of Nagasaki.” — this site's research
• Michael de Aozaraza Blessed
  “At Nagasaki in Japan, the passion of the holy martyrs Michael de Aozaraza, William Courtet, Vincent Shiwozuka, priests of the Order of Preachers, Lazarus of Kyoto and Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila, father of a family, who, kept in prison for more than a year for the name of Christ, suffered the torture of the cross and…” — this site's research