This true story of Christian martyrdom takes place in feudal Japan. The Christian world will always marvel how in less than two generations the Gospel seed struck such deep roots in Japan that thousands of coverts were ready to lay down their lives for Christ. True it is that many Japanese martyrs died for their faith are now canonized and beatified. Among many who did not obtain the crown of martyrdom there are not a few, both men and women, who, by their heroic virtue, were an inspiration to their contemporaries. Among the most outstanding are Justo Takayama Ukon and Gracia Hosokawa Tamako, to whom these pages are devoted. Father Laures describes vividly and accurately in these stories of Two Japanese Christian Heroes the trials and hardships of the early Catholic fathers and of their converts, their deep faith and the great spiritual strength that fortified their amazing endurance. In addition, he depicts with great insight the background of the old feudal days, the personal relationship of samurai to their lords, to their wives and to their families, as well as the political and social conditions of those days

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