Skip to main contentAccessibility feedback
Dear catholic.com visitors: This website from Catholic Answers, with all its many resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. A fully independent, lay-run, 501(c)(3) ministry that receives no funding from the institutional Church, we rely entirely on the generosity of everyday people like you to keep this website going with trustworthy, fresh, and relevant content. If everyone visiting this month gave just $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Giordano Ansaloni

Domincan missionary (d. 1634)

Click to enlarge

Ansaloni, GIORDANO (sometimes called GIORDANO DI SAN STEFANO), b. at San Angelo in Sicily early in the seventeenth century; d. in Japan, November 17, 1634. Having entered the Dominican Order and completed his studies at Salamanca, he was sent in 1625, together with many others, as a missionary to the Philippine Islands. Whilst serving as chaplain in a hospital for Chinese and Japanese at Manila he had occasion to master these languages. In 1631 he offered to go to Japan and arrived at the outbreak of the persecution in 1632. Disguised as a bonze he travelled over the land administering the rites of religion. He was seized August 4, 1634, and subjected to tortures that lasted seven days. Not the least of his sufferings was his enforced presence at the beheading of his companion, Thomas of St. Hyacinth, and sixty-nine other Christians. On November 18 he was suspended till dead from a plank with his head buried in the ground. Whilst detained in Mexico, on his way to the Philippine Islands, he wrote in Latin a series of lives of Dominican saints after a similar work by Hernando del Castillo and left at Manila an unfinished treatise on Chinese sects and idols.

THOS. M. SCHWERTNER


Did you like this content? Please help keep us ad-free

More from Catholic.com

Enjoying this content?  Please support our mission!Donate