February 6, 2026, Memorial of St. Paul Miki and Companions, Holy Rosary (Sorrowful Mysteries)

Friends of the Rosary,

Today’s Gospel (Mark 6:14–29) accounts for Herod’s murder of John the Baptist.

John is a proto-martyr, anticipating the martyrdom of many Christians.

Today, February 6, we are celebrating another martyr who refused to compromise their beliefs. Saint Paul Miki and Companions.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the first to give witness, thousands of Christians in Japan suffered martyrdom.

On February 5, 1597, Japanese Jesuit Paul Miki and his companions, including sixteen Japanese laymen, four of whom were boys, gave their lives for Christ.

The Shogun Hideyoshi feared that these missionaries represented the vanguard of an impending European conquest.

He decided to sacrifice them.

He had the ears of the missionaries cut and ordered them to march four hundred miles from Miyako to Nagasaki, with blood streaming down their faces as a sign of their disgrace.

In Nagasaki, each was bound to a cross and killed with a lance.

The Japanese martyrs were canonized in 1862.

Ave Maria!
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
To Jesus through Mary!

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Please give us the grace to respond with joy!

+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New York

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