CAPECE, ANTONIO. – Missionary and martyr, b. in Naples on 11 Aug. 1606, d. in Japan on 25 Mar. 1643. He entered the Society of Jesus on 30 July 1624 and in 1634 obtained permission to be sent to Japan together with Fr. Marcello Mastrilli. He disembarked at Goa in Dec. 1637 and (after a stay in Manila) at Macao in Apr. 1638, where he studied theology for a short time. Finally, after three years of mission in Cambodia (1638–41), he was able to reach Japan (1642) with Frs. Antonio Rubino, Alberto Mencinski, Diego de Morales, Francisco Márquez and three Christian laymen. 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 pit. Since he still survived after nine days in it, C. was beheaded.
CAPECE, ANTONIO
BIBL.: A. de Rhodes, Breve relatione della gloriosa morte che il p. Antonio Rubino... sofferse nella città di Nangasachi... con quattro altri Padri..., Rome 1652; M. Volpe, P. A. C. S. I. martire nel Giappone, Naples 1912.