Luis Sotelo

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Image:A Francisan friar.jpg Image:Sanjuanbautista.jpg

Luis Sotelo (1574-1624), was a Franciscan friar born in Sevilla, Spain on September 6, 1574. He died as a martyr in Japan in 1624, and was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1867.

Sotelo studied at the University of Salamanca before entering the convent of "Calvario de los Hermanos Menores". He was sent in 1600 to the Philippines, in order to take on the spiritual needs of the Japanese settlement of Dilao, until it was destroyed by Spanish forces in 1608 after intense fighting.

Sotelo then went to Japan where he tried to establish a church in the area of Tokyo. The church was destroyed following the interdiction of Christianity in the territories of the Tokugawa Shogun, and Sotelo fled to the northern part of Japan, in the area controlled by the Daimyo of Sendai, Date Masamune, under whom Christianity was still tolerated.

Sotelo projected and accompanied a Japanese embassy sent by Date Masamune to Spain in 1614. The embassy was headed by Hasekura Tsunenaga, and crossed the Pacific onboard the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista. He had the Japanese receive baptism in Madrid, before accompanying them to see Pope Paul V in Rome.

The embassy was a product of political ambitions of Sotelo and Date Masamune. Sotelo tried to establish a diocese on Northern Japan that was to be independent from the Jesuits-controlled diocese of Funai (Nagasaki). His campaign was obstructed by the Portuguese and even failed to gain wide support from the Franciscans because it was linked with his personal ambition for the bishop's post. Date Masamune wanted to trade with Nueva España (Mexico) but it became soon apparent that the trade was too costly.

Sotelo accompanied the Japanese embassy back to the Philippines in 1618, where he remained for some time, because Christianity was being harshly repressed in Japan. He got into a jam in church as he had oversold his achievement in Japan. The Catholic Council of the Indies sent him back to Nueva España in 1620 to pursue his missionary activities there.

Sotelo finally managed to infiltrate Japan in 1622 on-board a Chinese junk, whence he was discovered and imprisoned. After two years in prison, Luis Sotelo was burnt alive, together with two Franciscans, a Jesuit and a Dominican, at the age of 50.

References

• “The Christian century in Japan 1549-1650” C.R. Boxer ISBN 1857540352