Japan opened the door to foreigners only slightly in 1853, and Catholic Missioners from France belonging to the Paris Foreign Missionary Society built a church in the Nagasaki area that was only for foreigners. The priest Fr. Petitjean had just finished the church and shortly after was visited by a small group of those living in the area.
The story of this first encounter of a French missioner with the ancestors of the Christians from the 16th and 17th century are well known. Details are told in many different ways but the essential elements are pretty much the same. A family of ten who were the descendents of the early Christians met the French missionary with trepidation and the expectations that this had something to do with their belief, and when they learned about the Blessed Mother, the Pope and that the priest was celibate, they knew the priest belonged to the church of their ancestors from 250 years earlier. They had continued to use the word from the Portuguese--Christao, transliterated in Japanese meant Christian.
March 17th 1865 at noon was the beginning of a new era in Japan of Catholicism. At the beginning of the 17th century there were 400,000 Catholics in Japan who because of the persecution were killed or forced underground, and this year is the 150th anniversary of their discovery in the meeting with Fr. Petitjean. They have kept the history of Christianity in Japan alive. Little by little they began to appear from other areas of Japan.They became the central figures of Japanese Catholicism.
Even after this meeting with the priest, however, persecution of the Catholics continued,with death and exile to remote areas of Japan. Because of the serious criticism of many of the countries of Europe the Meiji government withdrew the edict of persecution in 1873, but it wasn't until 16 years later that the constitution was changed, allowing religious freedom for the country.
For seven generations Christians were considered wanted criminals; in exterior action they acted like Buddhists and when they were thought to be Christians and picked up for questioning, often would walk on the holy pictures to save their lives and on returning to their homes would ask God for forgiveness. For hundreds of years without priests or books they remembered the liturgical feasts and continued to baptize and have Catholic weddings. This year they are formally celebrating the Feast of the Hidden Christians, with the representative of Pope Francis present at the festivities.
