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.
Martyrdom of Bl. Leonard Kimura and four other Christians in Nagasaki, November 18, 1619, by an anonymous Japanese artist from Macao, between 1626 and 1632 (source)
