Blessed Leonard Kimura of the Society of Jesus was a descendant of a noble Kimura who was the first Japanese baptized by Saint Francis Xavier. Blessed Leonard Kimura, through humility, became a lay brother in the Society of Jesus. He joined the Society of Jesus at the age of thirteen, and was a catechist for thirty years. Along with thirteen other brave Japanese Catholics, he spent three years in prison. Right in the prison itself–which he turned into a religious house, with regular hours for prayer–he converted ninety-six Japanese to the Catholic Faith. He was burned to death on the hill of Nagasaki. He was forty-three years old when he went to God.