Chapter LI
The capture and martyrdom of the fathers Fray Jordan de San Estevan, and Fray Thomas de San Jacintho.
[The persecutors at this time were seeking with extraordinary diligence for an Augustinian father named Miguel, a Japanese by nation. The inquisition brought the officers of the law to the house where fathers Fray Jordan and Fray Thomas were lodging; and though, being informed of its approach, they fled, they were caught on the day of our father St. Dominic, August 4, 1634. When examined in court they answered briefly and boldly, and with Christian liberty showed no reverence to their unjust judges, denying the accusation of being spies of España. After a severe imprisonment and being ignominiously treated by the judges, before whom they were called several times, they suffered from the dreadful torture of water, which was poured down their throats until they swelled out like bags. They were then laid on the ground and a plank placed upon them, with two men on it, who trod on the plank and thus forced the water out of their mouths, ears, nostrils, eyes and other parts, with such torture as may be imagined. Afterward they again filled them with water, and forced it out again. They were subject to other tortures of the most horrible nature. November 11, 1634, sixty-nine persons, men and women, were taken out of prison to suffer for Christ, some by burning, some by beheading, and our glorious martyrs by being suspended head downward. As they passed through the streets, the Christians showed them secret signs of respect. The martyrs who declared their faith were brought to a place of execution. Father Fray Jordan lingered for seven days, and father Fray Thomas somewhat less. During his lifetime father Fray Jordan had received marked signs of the divine favor, having power to reveal their secrets to guilty hearts, and receiving other special revelations.]
Chapter LII
The glorious martyrdoms of the illustrious Marina and Magdalena, religious of the tertiary order
[The Christian Japanese who had been well prepared in the faith yielded many confessors; and the religious decided to admit into religious orders some of these of the most advanced virtue. Among these was a certain Sister Marina, admitted by father Fray Luis Exarch—a most holy woman. She was arrested and charged with being a Christian, and with protecting the religious. They revived in her case a torture which had long been given up as barbarous, exposing her naked to the public view and then subjecting her to other tortures by dragging her about from town to town, and causing her to suffer from thirst. Her valor and courage caused even the heathen to respect her. She was condemned to be burned by a slow fire, and her ashes were cast into the sea.
Sister Magdalena was the child of two martyrs; she departed to the desert, and gave herself up to devotion. She received the habit from father Fray Jordan, and, though the officers were not seeking for her, she came before them and confessed Christianity, forcing them to imprison her. After subjecting her to frightful tortures, the tyrant judge finally grew weary and sentenced her to death, directing her to be hanged by her feet. She lived in this torture, without food or drink, for thirteen days and a half.]