COSTANZO, Camillo, Blessed. - Martyr in Japan, b. at Motta Bovalina (diocese of Gerace) in Calabria, in 1572, entered the Society of Jesus in Naples on 8 Sept. 1591, after having taken part, in the troops of Ambrogio Spinola, in the siege of Ostend in Flanders. Having set out in 1602 for the mission of China and landed at Macao in 1605, being unable to penetrate into the Chinese Empire, he passed into Japan.

After seven years of apostolate, mainly at Saccai, the ban of 1614 against the missionaries forced him to withdraw to Macao, where he wrote in Japanese a refutation of Buddhism and other apologetic works. Having returned to Japan in 1621, disguised as a soldier, he was arrested the following year and burned at a slow fire at Firando on 15 Sept. 1622. He was beatified on 7 July 1867 and his feast is celebrated on 25 Sept.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: D. Bartoli, Il Giappone, IV, Turin 1825, pp. 110-14 and 229-46; L. Ch. Profillet, Le Martyrologie de l'Eglise du Japon, I, Paris 1895, pp. 121-27; D. Taccone-Gallucci, Martiri calabresi più recenti, in Rivista storica calabrese, 12 (1904), pp. 391-408.

Edmondo Lamelle

@incollection{ec4_costanzo_camillo_beato, author = {Lamalle, Edmondo}, title = {Costanzo, camillo, beato}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {771--772}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/costanzo-camillo-beato} }

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Costanzo, Camillo, Blessed

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