Sebastiao Rodrigues (1602-1685) was a Portuguese Jesuit priest who was sent as a Catholic missionary to Macau and Japan. In 1643, he was tortured into renouncing Christianity and becoming a Buddhist.
Biography[]
Sebastiao Rodrigues was born in Portugal in 1602, and he became a Jesuit priest. He studied under Alessandro Valignano and alongside Francisco Garupe at St. Paul's College in Macau, and, in 1638, they were sent to Japan to find Cristovao Ferreira, a Jesuit priest who was said to have renounced Christianity after being tortured. However, they themselves were arrested, and Rodrigues was tortured until he was convinced to trample on a picture of Jesus by the authorities, doing so after having a vision of Jesus which permitted him to renounce his faith in order to survive. He lived in Japan for several decades with a local wife while under the name "San'emon Okada", and he had no signs of Christian worship. He died in 1685 and was cremated as per Buddhist tradition, although he held in his hand a makeshift crucifix.