Giordano Ansalone

Giordano di San Stefano Ansalone, OP (1598 – 17 November 1634) was an Italian Dominican missionary in Asia. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1981 and canonized in 1987 by Pope John Paul II.

Saint Giordano Ansalone OP
San Giacinto Giordano Ansalone
Born	(1598-11-01)1 November 1598 Santo Stefano Quisquina, Kingdom of Sicily
Died	17 December 1634(1634-12-17) (aged 36) Nagasaki, Japan
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	18 February 1981, Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines by Pope John Paul II
Canonized	18 October 1987, St. Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Feast	17 November

Life

Ansalone was born at Santo Stefano Quisquina in Sicily. Having entered the Dominican Order and completed his studies at Salamanca, he was sent in 1625, together with many others, as a missionary to the Philippine Islands. Whilst serving as chaplain in a hospital for Chinese and Japanese at Manila he learned their languages.

In 1631, he offered to go to Japan and arrived at the outbreak of the persecution in 1632. Disguised as a bonze, he travelled over the land and administered the rites of the Catholic religion.

He was arrested 4 August 1634, and subjected to tortures that lasted seven days. He was forced to witness the beheading of his companion, Thomas of St. Hyacinth, and sixty-nine other Christians. On 18 November he was executed at Nagasaki, Japan, by being suspended till dead from a plank with his head buried in the ground.

Works

Whilst detained in Mexico, on his way to the Philippine Islands, he wrote in Latin a series of lives of Dominican saints after a similar work by Hernando del Castillo. He left at Manila an unfinished treatise on Chinese religion.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giordano Ansaloni". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
  • Quétif and Jacques Échard, Scriptores ordinis prædicatorum recensiti, notisque historicis illustrati ad annum 1700 auctoribus, II, 478:
  • Alvarez del Manzano, Compendio de la reseña biográfica de los religiosos de la Provincia de Santisimo Rosario de Filipinas (Manila, 1896), 122 sqq.