The Roman Catholic Church on Monday beatified 188 Japanese martyrs from the 17th century in the western city of Nagasaki, the first-ever ceremony of the kind held in the country.More than 30,000 Christians from Japan and numerous Asian nations gathered at a baseball stadium in Nagasaki for the spectacle.
During the ceremony -- a public act of blessing martyrs, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, a representative of Pope Benedict XVI, declared the beatification, a stage that comes before sainthood in Catholicism.
The 188 Japanese martyrs were mostly laypeople who were tortured to death between 1603 and 1639, for practising their religion.
The beatification ceremony in Japan comes 27 years after then Pope John Paul II visited the country and told an archbishop in Nagasaki that Japan is a country of martyrs and that they should be recognized.
Pope Benedict XVI issued the decree last year.
Many grey-robed nuns and priests were among the tens of thousands of Christians also from overseas namely Southeast Asia, South Korea and the Philippines, solemnly listening to the words from the pope's envoy.
But no government officials were invited to the beatification -- not even Prime Minister Taro Aso, Japan's first Christian leader.
As many as 30,000 Japanese are believed to have been martyred for following Christianity, which was introduced to the country by the Portuguese Jesuit priest Francis Xavier in 1549 but banned by the government for 250 years.
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(Source: AFP)