Miguel de Carvalho , also known as Michael Carvalho, (1579 – 25 August 1624) was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. He was beatified in July 1867 by Pope

Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

.Fros SJ, Henryk ''Book of names and saints'', pp. 423–437, 2007 Molinari SJ, Paolo. "Martiri dichiarati Santi della Compagnia di Gesu", Roman Curia Pontifical Academies
/ref>

Biography

Miguel was born in

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, in 1579, to a noble and wealthy family.Leite SJ, José. "Beato Miguel de Carvalho", Evangelizo, 2015-06-13
/ref> In 1597, he joined the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

.Borrelli, Antonio "Blessed Michael Carvalho, Jesuit martyr", 2005-02-22
/ref>"Blessed Mikael Carvalho 1579–1624", 2015-06-13
/ref> In 1602, he studied in

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

.Rochford SJ, Tom "Blessed Miguel Carvalho", Society of Jesus, 2015
/ref> After completing his studies of philosophy and theology at St. Paul's College in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, he was ordained to the priesthood. For several years, his vocation was a professor of theology at the Academy On 21 August 1621, he arrived in Japan, after traveling from

through

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, Malay, and

Portuguese Macau Macau was under Portuguese Empire, Portuguese rule from the establishment of the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 until its Handover of Macau, handover to China in 1999. It comprised the Municipality of Macau and the Municipality of ...

.Fros SJ, Henryk "Saints and Blessed of the Society of Jesus", Kraków: Wydawnictwo Apostolstwa Modlitwy, pp. 108–9, 1992, The situation in Japan was resulting in measures aimed at reducing the impact of the growing number of Catholics in social life. After a period of intense missionary activity by the Catholic Church,

Hidetada Tokugawa was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was born to Tokugawa Ieyasu and the ...

, the second ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, issued a decree which banned the practice and teaching of the Christian faith, and under the threat of loss of life, all the missionaries had to leave Japan. This decree started the bloody persecution of Christians, which lasted several decades. On

Amakusa , which means "Heaven's Grass," is a series of islands off the west coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. Geography The largest island of the Amakusa group is Shimoshima, which is 26.5 miles long and 13.5 mil ...

, Carvalho hid in plain view, disguised as a soldier for two years, where he assimilated the Japanese language and principles of inculturation. When the local governor openly confessed that Carvalho was a missionary, and the actual purpose of his stay was to preach and convert the locals to Christianity, he was expelled from the island. With the help of fellow believers, he went to

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

, where the Jesuit Provincial, Francisco Pacheco advised him to remain prudent in the implementation of the apostolate and directed him to care for a small group living in a suburban area. On 22 July 1623, as he returned from the pastoral ministry in Ōmura, Carvalho was arrested due to an accusation from an informant. In the local prison, he joined

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Luis Sotelo, Dominican Pedro Vásquez, and two Japanese Franciscans, Ludovicus Sasada and

tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

Ludovicus Baba. Miguel spent his time in captivity with the celebration of daily Mass and prayer. On 24 August, a death sentence was ordered, which was performed the next day in Ōmura. On 25 August 1624, Carvalho and his companions were

burned at the stake Death by burning is an list of execution methods, execution, murder, or suicide method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a puni ...

Legacy

The steadfastness and joy that he showed convicts in the face of martyrdom for the faith, aroused the admiration of his contemporaries. Carvalho was

beatified Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

on 7 July 1867. The death of the martyrs is commemorated by an obelisk in Ōmura."放虎原（ﾎｳｺﾊﾞﾙ）殉教地", 2015-06-13
/ref> In the Roman Catholic Church, Carvalho's feast day is celebrated on 25 August, as well as 10 September, the anniversary of the massacre of 205 Japanese martyrs in Ōmura, and the Jesuits mention it also 4 February. Carvalho is the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of the department of philosophy at the

Catholic University of Portugal The Catholic University of Portugal ( Portuguese: ''Universidade Católica Portuguesa'', pronounced nivɨɾsiˈðad(ɨ) kɐˈtɔlikɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ, also referred to as Católica or UCP for short, is a concordat university (non-state-run unive ...

, Braga Campus."Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Faculdade de Filosofia de Braga. História", date = 2017-02-08
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carvalho, Miguel 1577 births 1624 deaths People from Braga 17th-century Portuguese Jesuits Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries Portuguese beatified people Jesuit martyrs Martyred Roman Catholic priests Roman Catholic missionaries in Japan People executed by Japan by burning Portuguese people executed abroad Portuguese expatriates in Japan Jesuit missionaries in Japan