Visit to Martyr's Hill (26 February 1981)

On 26 February 1981, the Holy Father visited Martyr's Hill in Nagasaki, “where Christians, with the sacrifice of their lives, sealed their loyalty to Christ.”

Dear friends, 

1. Today I want to be one of the many pilgrims who come here to Martyrs' Hill in Nagasaki, to the place where Christians, with the sacrifice of their lives, sealed their loyalty to Christ. They triumphed over death with an unsurpassed act of praise to the Lord. In an attitude of prayer in front of the monument of the Martyrs, I would like to penetrate the mystery of their life, I would like them to speak to me and to the entire Church, I would like to listen to their message which is still alive after hundreds of years. Like Christ, they were led to a place where common criminals were executed. Like Christ, they gave their lives so that we could all believe in the love of the Father, in the saving mission of the Son, in the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit. In Nishizaka, February 5, 1597, twenty-six Martyrs testified to the power of the Cross; they were the first of a rich crop of Martyrs, because many, subsequently, would consecrate this land with their suffering and death. 

2. “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends” ( Jn 15:13). “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much fruit” ( Jn 12:24). 

Christians died in Nagasaki, but the Church in Nagasaki is not dead. It had to go underground and the Christian message was transmitted from parents to children, until the Church returned to the light. Rooted in this hill of Martyrs, the Church of Nagasaki would grow and flourish, until it became an example of faith and fidelity for all Christians, an expression of hope founded in the Risen Christ. 

3. Today I come to this place, as a pilgrim, to thank God for the life and death of the Nagasaki Martyrs – for those twenty-six, and all others who followed them – including the recently beatified heroes of Christ's grace. I thank God for the lives of all those, wherever they are, who suffer for their faith in God, for their loyalty to Christ the Savior, for their fidelity to the Church. Every age – past, present and future – produces, for the edification of all, shining examples of the power that is in Jesus Christ. 

Today I come to Martyrs' Hill to witness the primacy of love in the world. In this holy place people of all conditions proved that love is stronger than death. They embodied the essence of the Christian message, the spirit of the Beatitudes, so that anyone who turns their gaze upon them may be inspired to let their lives be shaped by the selfless love of God and the love of neighbor. 

Today, I, John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter, come to Nishizaka to pray that this monument may speak to modern man as the crosses on this hill spoke to those who were eyewitnesses centuries ago. May this monument speak to the world forever, about love, about Christ. 

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana