Introduction
In November 2008, 188 Japanese martyrs were beatified in Nagasaki, all heroic witnesses of the faith who offered their lives to the Lord between 1603 and 1639, when the persecution of Christians was very hard in Japan. They were humble people, missionaries, religious, children, the elderly, but also entire families.
In the midst of that very large number of new Blesseds there was one who - as an Archconfraternity - was and is particularly close to our heart. He was in fact "our" friend of many centuries ago and who saved his life from the Madonna dell'Orto: without this intervention he would not have been able to carry out the shining apostolate for which he is still known today at home.
But at this point it is good to start from the beginning, warning the kind reader that - for reasons of space - we will have to make an extreme synthesis of the facts, which otherwise would occupy entire volumes.

An epochal journey

A diplomatic mission departed from Japan in 1582 on the initiative of some daimyo (local feudal lords) converted to Catholicism, the first of its kind. Four very young nobles were part of it: ItōMancio was appointed head of the delegation to represent Ōtomo Sōrin, flanked by Chijiwa Michele, for the families of Arima and Ōmura, and accompanied by two other young men of high lineage, Nakaura Giuliano and Hara Martino. They were joined by a small group of companions among whom we remember the Jesuit father Diego Mesquita, who was their interpreter and inspirer.

The mission later became known in Japan as Tenshō shōnen shisetsu or also as Tenshō Ken'Ō shisetsu. It was a long triumphal journey throughout Europe and especially in Rome where they arrived in March 1585 to stay there for over two months in the general riot: many books have been written on that formidable event. But what interests us most here is to remember the miracle dispensed by the Madonna dell'Orto and which we are going to summarize briefly.
Being engaged in a dense daily calendar of commitments and sacred functions, the Pope wanted one day to offer a little relaxation and coolness to the young ambassadors (it was early June) through a trip to the sea off the coast of Ostia. The delegation went to embark at the river port of Ripa Grande, where the church of S. Maria dell'Orto was located a few meters away. They were told that there was a sacred image very revered by the people and so they entered for a short prayer. This done, the Japanese ambassadors and their entourage sailed up the river to reach the open sea. To cheer their return, Pope Sixtus V sent small ships to meet them - more suited to river navigation - decorated with rich sails, flags, colored insignia and splendid pavilions. On some of them there were musical ensembles and various singers.

But when you reach the sea and meet the guests, just as the musical entertainment is about to begin, here is a furious storm that threatens to wreck everything and everyone. It was at that terrible juncture that the ambassadors remembered the Madonna dell'Orto they had greeted closely before leaving Ripa Grande and invoked her with great fervor. Immediately it was the miracle: the wind ceased instantly, the sea became calm as a lake, all were saved. Refreshed in body and spirit, they went up the river singing the Te Deum of thanksgiving.

Just three years later, in 1588, the Confraternity of S. Maria dell'Orto - which has long since become one of the most important in Rome - was elevated by Pope Sixtus V himself (perhaps in honor and memory of the prodigious event) to the rank of Archconfraternity with the granting of special indulgences, while in 1657 the Vatican Chapter conferred on the Madonna dell'Orto the golden crown of an authentically miraculous image.
On the subject of historical documentation of the miracle, it is the Roman Pietro Bombelli - in his famous "Collection of Images of the Blessed Virgin adorned with the Golden Crown from the Rev.mo Chapter of St. Peter" (voll. 4; Rome 1792 ) - which, having reached that of SM dell'Orto, gives us more extensive details, telling us how the Japanese ambassadors and their entourage had come down the river to spend a day at sea. To cheer their return, the Pope sent to meet them “ships with rich sails, flags and golden flames aft and bow and covered with splendid pavilions.
There were the woods for the embassies and the others were assembled by musicians and musicians ”.
But once they reached the sea and met the guests, “while they want to begin the harmonies, a furious storm threatens them with shipwreck: broken masts, torn sails, broken rudders. At that juncture everyone remembered the Madonna dell'Orto they had greeted closely on leaving Ripa. Everyone invoked it and were actually granted. The wind ceased, the waves cleared, calm returned.
Then they sang the Te Deum thanksgiving and then for long years on the 8th of June anniversary of the danger they used to go to that sanctuary to sing solemn mass in memory of the grace received ”.
Bombelli's story confirms what Gasparo Alveri had published over a century earlier in his no less famous work "Rome in every State" of 1664, where, among other things, we find the news that, still eighty years after that event “come to the said church [S. Maria dell'Orto] every year many musicians to sing the thanksgiving mass of the danger they avoided in 1585 when several singers were by Gregory XIII [actually Sixtus V, Pope Gregory had died on April 10 - ed.] Sent to Ostia to meet the Japanese ambassadors… ”.
Before concluding the narration of the event, however, it does not seem strange to us to dwell briefly - just a touch of the pen - on the particular symbolic meaning of the miracle just mentioned. We are certainly not theologians, but some references to the Holy Scriptures seem to us to be of indisputable evidence.

For the ancients the sea was the symbol of the powers of evil and called primitive chaos to minds. God, who is the only Lord of creation, has absolute power over the sea. Already in the Book of Job (XXXVIII, passim) we find a first sign, when God himself turns to the prophet to remark “Who has shut the sea between two doors […]? Then I set a limit for him […] and I said: You will reach this far and no further, and here the pride of your waves will shatter ”. But it is in the Psalms (CVI, 23-31) that it is possible to find a description that is surprisingly similar to the unfolding of the miraculous event. “Those who sailed the sea on ships […] saw the works of the Lord, his wonders in the deep sea. He spoke and caused a stormy wind to rise, which lifted his waves. They ascended to heaven, descended into the abyss; their souls languished in trouble. In anguish they cried out to the Lord, and he delivered them from their distress. He reduced the storm to calm, the waves of the sea were silent.
They rejoiced to see the calm and he led them to the longed-for port ”. All exactly like the flotilla of papal ships which, first beaten by the waves, then rediscovers the prodigious stillness of the waves and goes up the river to Ripa Grande singing the Te Deum.
Finally, another formidable representation is found in the Gospel of Mark (IV, 35-41), when Jesus decides to go to the other side of the lake with his disciples, followed by other boats. “In the meantime, a great wind storm arose and threw waves into the boat, so much so that it was now full. He sat in the stern, on the pillow, and slept. Then they woke him up and said to him, "Master, don't you care that we die?" When he woke up, he scolded the wind and said to the sea "Shut up, calm down." The wind ceased and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? Don't you have faith yet? ». And they were terrified and they said to one another, "Who then is this, to whom even the wind and the sea obey him?"

As we can see, the general structure of the story that is obtained from the pages of the Scriptures is surprisingly similar to that of the "Japanese" miracle: the boats are surprised by a storm as sudden as it is violent and the sailors, lost in front of so much danger, turn distressed at the Lord. The latter takes pity and the storm ceases instantly. Those who survived certain death then thank the Lord and praise His infinite power.

The symbolism inherent in the event is so uncovered that it is hardly necessary to dwell on it schematically: surprised by the forces of evil, the fragile believer is lost and threatens to succumb, but turning with full trust to the Lord obtains the salvation of the soul. In our case it is Mary, "omnipotent by intercession", who becomes a mediator with God and who obtains the health of the body and, with it, of the soul. Whoever turns to her is never disappointed, exactly as Bombelli himself praises her when he says that Mary - venerated under the title "Orto" - is precisely a "garden closed to the infernal serpent not to the souls of the faithful, that everyone loves to admit and share in his bounty ". The Madonna dell'Orto therefore offers itself to the faithful, in a completely exemplary way, as a safe shelter from the storms of life and a ship of salvation that leads to Christ.

Biography of Giuliano Nakaura Jingorō SJ, "he who was in Rome"

He was born around 1568 in the village of Nakaura, now part of the Saikai Town Hall, in Nagasaki prefecture. His father Kosasa Jingorō, lord of the castle of Nakaura (hence the name), died in 1568 shortly after the birth of Giuliano. The latter, in 1582, just two years after his entry into the seminary of Arima, was chosen to be part of the official legation leaving for Europe.
Disembarked in Lisbon and triumphantly welcomed in Madrid, they finally arrived and Rome on March 22, 1585. Elder Gregory XIII, who was waiting for them with great happiness, decided to receive them the following day, sending them to meet them at Porta Flaminia (today's Piazza del Popolo ) the Jesuit Father General Claudio Acquaviva. Giuliano, who had fallen ill with malaria during the trip, prayed earnestly to participate in the audience anyway: already during the long journey he had dreamed of being able to see the Pope. Indeed, "If they bring me before him - he said in his broken Latin to the doctors who opposed - I'm sure I will recover ”. Finally, given his great insistence, a short private meeting was organized before the public audience. The old pontiff - who saw in that boy who was burning with fever and enthusiasm the fruit of his care to open colleges and seminaries in different parts of the world - embraced him crying, while Giuliano responded with his tears. Shortly thereafter Pope Gregory fell seriously ill, however - still on the same day of his death (April 10, 1585) - he invited us to pray for the health of the "Japanese" whom he had welcomed with all his father's heart.
During his stay in Rome, Julian visited the novitiate of Sant'Andrea with his companions, praying in front of the tomb of the young novice Stanislao Kostka who had died a few years earlier.

His life impressed them so deeply that that same evening they asked for an audience with the Jesuit Father General to inform him that they wished to stay in Rome to enter the Society of Jesus. Prudently, Fr. Acquaviva suggested that they first finish their diplomatic mission and then to consult with Fr. Valignano who was their companion and counselor. The boys accepted the answer but Giuliano had already made his firm decision and later kept it, even in the face of many difficulties.
Returning to Nagasaki and having completed the final tasks relating to the embassy, ​​in 1591 Julian entered the novitiate of the Ignatian Company in Kawachinoura, in the Amakusa islands.
After the first part of his studies he was sent to Yatsushiro, where between 1598 and 1660 he took part in an evangelization campaign which ended abruptly with the defeat in Sekigahara of Yatsushiro's daymio, Agostino Konishi Yukinaga. He then went to Macao, a Portuguese colony in southeastern India, to specialize in theology and in 1608, returning to Japan, was ordained a priest. In 1614, while the others were leaving for exile, Julian was ordered to remain hidden in Japan.
From 1614 to 1626 Giuliano resided in the territory of Arima, first in Kuchinotsu in a house near the port and then in Kazusa in the home of a local notable, where he also had a clandestine chapel. From here he managed a large "parish" territory but once a year he made a pastoral visit to the various localities of his relevance. When over the years his health declined, making it difficult if not impossible for him to walk, they carried him in a bamboo basket similar to those used by farmers to transport the products of the earth.
Until 1621 the tiny group of Japanese missionaries in hiding in the territory of Arima were able to work intensely and in relative tranquility, then a period of tribulation and persecution began. Finally, in 1627, Giuliano moved from Arima to Kokura: what must have been the last five years of his apostolate and of his own life were completed in 1632, when he was captured and sent to the "Cruz-machi" prison in Nagasaki.
In prison Giuliano met various acquaintances and others later joined. And while these men, one after the other, went to meet martyrdom, Julian was instead detained for more than ten months: since he was a well-known person, it was logical that the persecutors tried by all means to induce him to apostasy. But on October 18, 1633, the doors of the prison were also opened for him to lead him to martyrdom.
He did not go to die alone, but together with a group of Dominican and Jesuit missionaries. Following the same path that other glorious martyrs had traveled up to Nishizaka Hill three months earlier, Julian set out with his hands tied behind his back and his legs atrophied from infirmity. But if his body was in serious decay, his heart was young enough to endure illnesses and instill in him great courage: led to the place of execution, in front of the two governors of Nagasaki eager to enjoy the show, he presented himself proudly pronouncing some words that did not give rise to doubts and destined to become famous: "I am Father Giuliano Nakaura, the one who was in Rome".
The martyrdom suffered by Giuliano was terrible. For him and other companions a new torment of refined sadism was applied: wrapped in a cloth and tied tightly to limit breathing, he was hung by his feet upside down with his head in a hole, having his tormentors wounded his ears. so that the blood would come out slowly making his agony more cruel. In fact Giuliano suffered in agony for three days until 21 October. A witness heard his last words, in which he proclaimed that he was enduring those excruciating suffering for the love of God.
His body, as was the case for most of the martyrs, was cremated and his ashes placed in a sack of straw, carried by boat to the mouth of the bay and there thrown into the sea. This procedure confirms the fact that he was executed in hatred of the Christian faith: neither with evildoers nor with traitors was such a method adopted.
In the documents collected for the beatification we read that Giuliano Nakaura is not only a martyr priest but also a strongly symbolic figure: emblem of the cultural exchange between East and West; emblem of the very strong bond that unites the Japanese church to the See of Peter; symbol of the highest and noblest ideals for young people and fidelity to the religious vocation for priests.
Even today Giuliano Nakaura is a very popular figure in Japan: books, theatrical and cinematographic works, monuments, various tributes have been dedicated to him.

The portrait of Blessed Giuliano

The painting kept in the church of S. Maria dell'Orto was created in 2009 by the Japanese painter Kazuko Mimaki, commissioned by His Exc. The Archbishop of Nagasaki, Msgr. Joseph Takami who then generously donated it to our Sodality. The painter, a refined and sensitive artist, has studied the figure of the Blessed for a long time to the point that he is now a kind of spiritual father for her, an indispensable reference point.
The general layout of the painting was largely suggested by the Camerlengo dell 'Arciconfraternita, moreover at the express request of the same author. Therefore Giuliano - despite having died at an advanced age - is portrayed as a young man, that is, at the time of his fabulous journey to the West; the figure is "in majesty" that is seen from the front as it must be able to look the faithful or even the simple spectator in the eye. It is also the firm and fearless attitude of the one who, armed only with his unwavering faith, goes to meet martyrdom, moreover represented by the classic palm held in his right hand.
In the background, two emblematic images that characterize the story of the miracle. The first is, of course, the church of S. Maria dell'Orto, which appears flooded by the rising sun: it was just dawn when it was visited by the Japanese delegation. Furthermore - since the church is perfectly aligned on the east / west axis, according to the most classic dictates of sacred architecture - the facade facing east looks towards Jerusalem (an ideal earthly destination for every Christian) as well as, going further, precisely towards Japan, his native land and place par excellence of the Rising Sun: in this way Giuliano, with his gaze fixed in front of him, contemplates at the same moment three objectives of great significance, while the church behind him also represents the strength and protection granted by the Blessed Virgin.

The second image in the background is that of the Tiber river with its typical boats, therefore the glimpse of the panorama that had to be offered at the sight of Giuliano when he embarked at the port of Ripa Grande which - we remember - at that time was a few tens of meters away. from the church.
Giuliano wears a traditional Japanese dress of the time, in keeping with his patrician rank, however, underlined by other signs of honorable distinction: around the neck, the pleated ruff typical of Western gentlemen, which became an "obligatory" clothing accessory for ambassadors during the mission in Europe; at the side, the short wakizashi sword - also called "the sign of honor" - which was usually accompanied by the longer katana; always on the belt, a fan in fine rice paper, which in the purest Japanese knightly tradition had a function both as an ornament and - due to its rigid splints - as an effective offense / defense weapon.