Bl.Francis Pacheco

Born at Ponte da Lima, Portugal in 1566

Missionary to China and Japan.

Entered the Society of Jesus in 1586 and in 1592 he was ordained priest.
He laboured in Macao and Japan as rector, provincial, vicar general, and administrator of the diocese.

On his third entrance into Japan made in disguise, Francis was captured by the Shogun's many
spies and put in a prison with other Jesuits, catechists, and lay people. Among them were some
young men preparing to enter the Society, and, with martyrdom imminent, Pacheco permitted
them to make their vows. In 1626 they all suffered martyrdom at Nagasaki. Francis was the most experienced of all the 33 Jesuits who were martyred in Japan during the great persecution between 1617 and 1626.

During these terrible years he saw thousands of Christians deny their Faith for fear of torture but he also saw thousands endure the death by slow fire. There during the next six months he formed a quasi-religious community of the fellow prisoners with regular periods of fast and prayers to strengthen themselves against the inevitable ordeal ahead. The laymen were taken last in the hopes that they would change their minds, but they were only strengthened in their resolve.

He was burned alive with two other European Jesuits, a Japanese Jesuit, four Japanese laymen, and a Korean.

Died in Nagasaki, Japan, 1626;
Beatified in 1867