Tsurushi
Encyclopedia
Kirishitan
, from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used as a historiographic term for Roman Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. Christian missionaries were known as bateren or iruman...
") recant
Recantation
The verb recant , and its derivative noun recantation, can mean:* To formally abandon a belief or a particular statement of belief, generally under order from an ecclesiastical authority to...
their faith. Both Japanese and Western Christians are known to have been submitted to the torture. As the tortured was held by the feet with a rope, one of the hands would be held tight with a rope, but another would be left hanging freely, so that a sign could be made by the tortured that he was willing to recant.
The technique was said to be unbearable for those submitted to it. The body was often lowered into a hole, itself often filled with dirt at the bottom. Typically, a cut would be made in the forehead in order to let blood pressure decrease in the area around the head.
The lives of Christians who recanted were spared, but most refused to deny their faith.
A notable victim of this method of torture was Saint Lorenzo Ruiz
Lorenzo Ruiz
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz , also known as San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, is the first Filipino saint venerated in the Roman Catholic Church...
, the first Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
martyr to be canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
by the Roman Catholic Church.