Magdalene of Nagasaki

Magdalene of Nagasaki (長崎のマグダレナ, Nagasaki no Magudarena) was a Japanese Christian born in 1611 as the daughter of a Christian couple martyred about 1620. With the arrival of the Augustinian Order, Magdalene served as an Augustinian lay sister or tertiary, interpreter and catechist for the friars Francis of Jesus Terrero and Vincent of Saint Anthony Simoens.

Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki
Patron of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity Companions of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila
Born	1611 Nagasaki, Tokugawa Shogunate
Died	15 October 1634 (aged 22–23) Nagasaki, Tokugawa Shogunate
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Beatified	February 18, 1981, Manila, Philippines by Pope John Paul II
Canonized	October 18, 1987, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Binondo Church in Binondo, Manila, Philippines
Feast	October 20
Attributes	Palm, Augustinian habit (without the typical nun hair net, since she was a lay sister), books
Patronage	Secular Augustinian Recollects
Controversy	Augustinian and Dominican tertiary.

Magdalene of Nagasaki (Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila)

In 1632, these two Augustinian friars, who had been her spiritual counselors, were burned alive. After the martyrdom of her counselors, she apprenticed herself to two other Augustinians, Melchior of Saint Augustine and Martin of Saint Nicholas. When these two friars were also put to death, she turned to Giordano Ansaloni de San Esteban, a Dominican.

Some time later, and attired in her Augustinian habit, Magdalene turned herself into the authorities and declared herself a follower of Jesus Christ. At age 23, she died on October 15, 1634 after thirteen days of torture, suffocated to death and suspended upside down in a pit of offal on a gibbet (tsurushi).

After death, her body was cremated and her ashes scattered in Nagasaki Bay.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on February 18, 1981 in Manila, and canonized on October 18, 1987 at Vatican City among the 16 Martyrs of Japan.