Paweł Tanaka
Feast: 10 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Paul Tanaka, a married layman, was clothed in the Dominican habit at his death. He and his wife Mary were put to death on the hill at Nagasaki on 10 September 1622, among the fifty-two martyrs who died there before a great crowd.
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 Japanese layman martyred with his wife.
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.
- Conferenza Episcopale Italiana - Santo del giorno, 10 settembre (Martirologio Romano)
- Dominican Order, Vicariate of Spain - IV Centenario de la gran persecución en Japón 1622 (Fr Jarvis Sy OP)
- 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 Q24036047 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.