Bartolomé Días Laurel
Feast: 10 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Bartholomew Diaz, called Laurel, was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor who professed at Valladolid (now Morelia) in Mexico in 1617, went to Manila in 1619 and worked there as a nurse. From 1623 he served in Japan as companion of Blessed Francis of Saint Mary, preparing the way for the priest and teaching catechism. Arrested in 1627, he was burned alive at Nagasaki in August 1627.
He is one of the 205 martyrs killed in Japan for the Catholic faith between 1617 and 1632 whom Pius IX declared Blessed on 7 July 1867.
The miracles
In 1867 Pius IX approved four signs in the cause of the 205 martyrs of Japan; the source does not describe them.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Franciscan brother and nurse martyred in Japan.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
Connected on this site
- Francis of Saint Mary Blessed“From 1623 he served in Japan as companion of Blessed Francis of Saint Mary, preparing the way for the priest and teaching catechism.” — this site's research
- Conferenza Episcopale Italiana - Santo del giorno, 27 agosto (Martirologio Romano)
- Directorio Franciscano (Franciscan Order, Spain) - Beatos Francisco de Santa María, Bartolomé Laurel, Antonio de San Francisco y compañeros, mártires de Japón (1627)
- Acta Sanctae Sedis 2 (1867), pp. 478-481 and 638-641 - decrees of Pius IX on the 205 martyrs of Japan (1617-1632)
- Directorio Franciscano (Franciscan Order, Spain) - Beatos Ricardo de Santa Ana y compañeros, mártires de Japón (beatification of the 205 on 7 July 1867)
- Wikidata Q24954131 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.