Alfonso Navarrete
Blessed Alfonso Navarrete , also known as Alfonso Navarrete-Benito, sometimes latinised as Alphonsus, (1571 – 1 June 1617) was a Spanish nobleman, Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and missionary in the Philippines (1598–1610) and in Japan (1611–death), active during the anti-Christian persecutions of early Tokugawa Japan, in the Shogunate of Hidetada. Celebrated for his social work he has been called the Vincent de Paul of Japan and at some point became Master of the Order of Preachers in the country. He was executed by beheading in the Ōmura Domain on the orders of the Daimyo Ōmura Sumiyori on 1 June 1617.
At the time of his arrest before his martyrdom he was travelling with two companions Blessed Ferdinand Ayala, an Augustinian friar, and Blessed Leo Tanaca, a lay catechist, and they are commemorated together annually on the 1st of June. These three companions are part of the larger group of 205 Martyrs of Japan commemorated on the 10th of September. As the first Friar Preacher to suffer execution in the country, Alphonsus has the honour of protomartyr of the Dominicans in Japan. His example quickly became an inspiration to later missionaries to Japan from the Order of Preachers such as canonised saints Giordano Ansalone, Domingo Ibáñez de Erquicia, Guillaume Courtet, and Lorenzo Ruiz. He is commemorated with the other Dominican friars and tertiaries martyred during the shogunate persecutions on the 6th of November.
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