Bls. Luis Flores, Pedro de Zuniga, and Companions

As a child, Luis Flores, a Spaniard born in Antwerp, Belgium, migrated with his parents to Mexico. As a Dominican missionary priest, he served for eighteen years in the Philippines before embarking on a sea journey to Japan. Also aboard his boat was the Augustinian missionary priest, Pedro de Zuniga, a native of Seville, Spain. Their ship was piloted by a Japanese sea captain, Joachim Hirayama Diaz, a Catholic convert who together with all the men of his crew belonged to the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. The boat was intercepted en route by Dutch pirates, who brought the vessel to the Japanese port of Firando. Here Japanese pagan officials took the two priests and the entire crew of thirteen into custody. Father Flores was tortured. The priests and seamen were kept in prison for two years. On August 19, 1622, the two priests and Captain Hirayama Diaz were put to death by fire, and the other prisoners were beheaded.