Holy martyrs of Japan, pray for us! St. Dominic Ibañez de Erquicia was a Spanish Dominican priest who taught at St. Tomas College in Manila. He went to work in Japan undercover in 1623 and was imprisoned and put to death by the Japanese authorities, at the hands of a Christian apostate, at the age of 44. St. James Kyushei Tomonaga of St. Mary was a Japanese Dominican priest born into a noble Christian family of Kyudetsu. After studying at the Jesuits’ College at Nagasaki, he was exiled from Japan for working as a catechist, and after preaching in Manila and Taiwan, returned in 1632 to help his Christian brothers, with whom he was eventually arrested and killed. St. Lawrence Ruiz of Manila, a Filipino lay Dominican and husband, father to three children, after involvement in some obscure incident involving bloodshed, joined the missionary expedition to Japan in order that he may escape. He was arrested and tortured to death, becoming the Protomartyr of the Philippines. Holy martyrs...