CASAS MARTÍNEZ, FELIPE DE JESÚS, ST.

Mexican protomartyr of Japan; b. Mexico City, May 1, 1572; d. Nagasaki, Japan, Feb. 5, 1597. His Spanish parents, Alonso de las Casas, a rich merchant, and Antonia Mart'nez, went to Mexico in 1571. Felipe entered the Franciscans in Puebla in 1589, but he did not persevere. He decided instead to become a merchant and went to the Philippines. In Manila he took the habit once more in May of 1593 and made his profession the next year. He embarked for Mexico on July 12, 1596. A storm damaged the ship and took it to the shores of Japan on Oct. 18, 1596. Felipe received lodgings at the Franciscan convent of Miyako, Kyoto. On Dec. 11, 1596, the order to imprison and crucify the Christian missionaries of the district of Miyako was given. Felipe was not included on the list, but by his vehement desire for martyrdom he managed to become one of the group. The 26 missionaries were taken from Miyako to Nagasaki, where they were martyred. Each cross had five iron rings for the neck, hands, and feet, and a pedestal. Raised on the cross, Felipe could not rest his feet because the pedestal was low; the neck ring choked him. He cried out three times, "Jesus." His body was pierced by three lances, and in this manner he who was the last to arrive was the first to die. He was beatified on Sept. 14, 1627, and declared patron of Mexico on Feb. 5, 1629, in ceremonies that his mother witnessed. Felipe was canonized on June 8, 1862.

Feast: Feb. 5.

Bibliography: m. cortina portilla, Una biografía en grabados (Mexico City 1994). x. escalada, Felipe de Jesús: México bravío y artista (Mexico City 1991). h. magaret, Felipe, Being the Little-known History of the Only Canonized Saint Born in North America (Milwaukee 1962). j. a. pichardo, Vida y martirio del protomártir Mexicano san Felipe de Jesús las Casas (Guadalajara, Mex. 1934). e. e. rios, Felipe de Jesús: El santo criollo (Mexico City 1954).

[e. gÒmez tagle]