Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Notes on the collapse of the Diocese of Funai, 1625

A general persecution of Catholics began in Japan at the beginning of the 17th century, and was revived by the promulgation of the Edict of 1614. That Edict contained such stringent measures that the Church was forced to go underground.

The missionary trials ended in the martyrdom of priests and many converts; the Shimabara Rebellion of 1637 dealt the deathblow to organized Christianity, and from then Japan was hermetically closed to foreigners.

Rome still appointed an apostolic administrator in 1638, but all efforts to continue the mission work was in vain.

As the church could reestablish itself more than two hundred years later, the missionaries found in Urakami many Catholic communities which, although for centuries without a priest, had remained steadfast in the faith.

Source: Huiskamp 1994, pp. 215-217

- CT