St Gonsalo Garcia

Gonsalo Garcia was born about 1556 at Vasai, then Bassein, north of present-day Mumbai. His father was Portuguese and his mother Indian. He was taught by Jesuits and travelled with them to Japan as a young man, where he learned the language well enough to preach.

He worked for some years as a merchant in Macau after a Jesuit vocation did not proceed, then joined the Franciscans as a lay brother and returned to Japan, serving as interpreter for the Franciscan mission.

In 1596 the political mood turned against Christians. Garcia was arrested with twenty-five others, Japanese and European, religious and lay. They were marched a long distance to Nagasaki, part of their ears cut off on the way as a public warning, and crucified together on 5 February 1597.

The group is venerated as the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan. They were canonised in 1862. Garcia is honoured in Vasai as the first saint born on Indian soil, and the city’s churches and schools carry his name.