CAPECE, ANTONIO

CAPECE, ANTONIO. - Missionary and martyr, b. at Napoli on 11 Aug. 1606, d. in Japan on 25 March 1643. Having become a Jesuit on 30 July 1624, he obtained in 1634 to be sent to Japan together with Fr. Marcello Mastrilli. Having landed at Goa in Dec. 1637 and (after a stay in Manila) at Macao in Apr. 1638, he taught theology there for a short time. Finally, after three years of mission work in Cambogia (1638–41), he was able to land in Japan (1642) with Frs. Antonio Rubino, Alberto Mencinski, Diego di Morales, Francesco Marques, and three Christians. Discovered and arrested the following day, they endured the water torture more than a hundred times over seven months and were then condemned to the torture of the pit. Still surviving in it after nine days, C. was beheaded.