Giordano Ansaloni
Italian Dominican missionary in Asia
Feast: 17 November (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Giordano Ansalone, born at San Angelo in Sicily, became a Dominican and in 1625 was sent to the Philippines, where he learned Chinese and Japanese as chaplain of a hospital at Manila.
In 1632 he went to Japan at the height of the persecution, travelling in disguise to minister to Christians. Seized on 4 August 1634, he was tortured for seven days and forced to watch the beheading of his companions, then hung head-down in a pit until he died in November 1634.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A missionary who died for the Christians of Japan.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Jordan Ansalone
- Wikidata Q2486334 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Giordano Ansalone (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.