Magdalene of Nagasaki

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Magdalene of Nagasaki
Image:Stmagnag.jpg Magdalene of Nagasaki
Martyr
Born	c. 1611
Died	October 16,1634
Canonized	October 18, 1987 by John Paul II
Feast	October 20
Attributes	palm, Agustinian habit (without the typical nun hair net, since she was a lay sister), books
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Born in 1611, Magdalene of Nagasaki was the daughter of a Christian couple martyred about 1620. With the arrival of the Augustinian Order, Magdalene served as an Agustinian lay sister or tertiary, interpreter and catechist for Fathers Francis of Jesus Terrero and Vincent of Saint Anthony Simoens.

In 1632 these two Augustinian friars, who had been her spiritual counselors, were burned alive. After the martyrdom of her counselors, she apprenticed herself to two other Augustinians, Fathers Melchior of Saint Augustine and Martin of Saint Nicholas. When these two friars were also put to death, she turned to Father Jordan of Saint Stephen, a Dominican.

Some time later, and attired in her Augustinian habit, Magdalene turned herself into the authorities and declared herself a follower of Jesus Christ. At age 23, she died on October 16, 1634 after thirteen days of torture, suffocated to death and suspended upside down in a pit of offal on a gibbet. After death, her body was burned and her ashes scattered in the bay of Nagasaki. She was canonized by John Paul II.