Nakaura Juliao (中浦ジュリアン)
Juliao NAKAURA (1568 - October 22, 1633) was a Christian and was one of the vice-envoys of Tensho Keno Shonen Shisetsu (the Tensho Boy Mission to Europe) who lived during the Azuchi Momoyama period to the early Edo period. Juliao was his Christian name. He was the son of the feudal lord of Nakaura village, Omura territory, Hizen Province. He was a Jesuit and a Roman Catholic priest.
Career
According the documents that had been passed down in Rome, Juliao NAKAURA's father was Jingoro NAKAURA, who was the feudal lord of Nakaura, Hizen Province. He intended to become a priest and studied at a Seminario (Seminary) in Arima, but Seminario at the time only allowed sons that had strong religious belief who were from a certain level of family lineage, and Juliao may have been from a family befitting to that certain social status.
Alessandro Valignano (Valignano) who came to Japan as a Jesuit visitor, met with Sumitada OMURA who was a Christian daimyo (Christian feudal lord), and in order to restore missionary work that was in financial difficulties, and to nurture Japanese priests which would be in charge of the coming generation, he sought to dispatch an envoy representing Christian daimyo to Rome.
Therefore, Valignano marked out four boys who were studying at the Seminario. Criteria for selecting the representatives were good looks, health that can withstand a long trip, and outstanding aptitude for foreign languages and studies. The two senior envoys were representatives of Christian daimyo who were chosen from those that were related to those daimyo, but blood relationship was not strictly assessed for the vice-envoys.
(Refer to the section on Tensho Keno Shonen Shisetsu for their trip to Europe.)
They also went to Rome during their trip and had an audience with the Pope, Gregorius XIII, but only Juliao NAKAURA was unable to attend the audience ceremony due to high fever. However, owing to an arrangement made by a nobility who heard of Juliao's earnest desire to have the honor of seeing the Pope, 'I will immediately recover from my fever when I see my dear Pope,' only Juliao had met with the Pope privately.
He was nervous from beginning to end at the ball in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, since it was the first time for him to attend such an event. There is a pleasant episode that because he was nervous, he had, without better judgment, asked an old lady to dance with him when his turn came around.
A year after their return to Japan in 1590, they had an audience with Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI at Jurakudai residence. Hideyoshi took a liking to them, and recommended that they become officers, but they had all declined. Later, he went to Noviciado in Amakusa in order to continue studying to become a priest, and went to collegio (college established by the Jesuits) to continue with his studies. On July 25, 1593, he joined the Society of Jesus with the other three members of the envoy.
By 1601, he transferred to collegio in Macao to study advanced course on theology.
(Miguel CHIJIWA withdrew at this point.)
In 1608, Mancio ITO, Martinho HARA, and Juliao NAKAURA were ordained together as priests.
After the ordination to a priest, he served in Hakata. Because Nagamasa KURODA who was the lord of the domain began suppressing Christians in 1613, he was driven out and went to Nagasaki. At the time of the proclamation of Christian banishment order in the following year, he chose to hide underground, determined for martyrdom. Father Nakaura went around the Kyushu region, consoling Christians who were suffering from persecution.
Father Nakaura continued to work undergrounds for twenty or so years, but he was finally arrested in Kokura and was deported to Nagasaki in 1633. Then, on October 18, he was sentenced to the punishment of anatsuri (hanging the convict up side down over a hole) along with Father Giovanni Adami, Father Antonio de Souza, Father Cristóvão Ferreira who were Jesuits, Father Lucus Spirito Santowho who was one of a Dominican, and three monks.
Anatsuri was a merciless form of punishment where the blood of the whole body accumulate in the head, and only a few drops fall from the temple, making one struggle while dying slowly. Being in a unconscious state from excessive pain, Father Cristóvão Ferreira gave up his faith, but the others kept their faith and all had died in martyrdom. Father Nakaura was the first one to die, but it was on October 21, which was the fourth day from the commencement of anatsuri; he was 64 years old.
It was said that his last words were 'I am Father Juiao NAKAURA who went to Rome.'
It had been forty three years since he returned to Japan, and the other three had already passed away.
Three hundred and seventy four years after the martyrdom in June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI made an announcement to beatify Juiao NAKAURA as a Beato, and on November 24, there was a Beatification in Nagasaki with other 187 men. He was the first to become a Beato among the Tensho Keno Shonen Shisetsu.