ANSALONI, GIORDANO (GIORDANO DI SANTO STEFANO). — Dominican, martyr of Japan. Born in S. Stefano (Agrigento) in 1600, he was sent to Salamanca to complete his studies. In 1625 he obtained permission to go to the Philippines and spent several years in Manila as a confessor in a hospital. Having learned Chinese and Japanese, in 1632 he secretly entered Japan, where persecution was raging (v. GIAPPONE, MARTIRI). Captured in Nagasaki in August 1634, after atrocious tortures, he died on 18 November of the same year, sharing the martyrdom with seventy other Christians. A polyglot, he made translations and wrote a book on Chinese idols and sects, which remained unfinished and is only attested by surviving evidence.
Bibl.: L. Pagès, Histoire de la Religion Chrétienne au Japon, Paris 1901.