... were a group of Catholics executed by crucifixion on February 5, 1597, at Nagasaki. Their martyrdom is especially significant in the history of Catholic Church in Japan.

A promising beginning to Catholic missions in Japan – with perhaps as many as 300,000 Catholics by the end of the 16th century – met complications from competition between the missionary groups, political difficulty between Spain and Portugal, and factions within the government of Japan. Christianity was suppressed, and it was during this time that the 26 martyrs were executed. By 1630, Catholicism had been driven underground. When Christian missionaries returned to Japan 250 years later, they found a community of "hidden Catholics" that had survived underground.

Early Christianity in Japan: On August 15, 1549, the Jesuit fathers Francis Xavier (later canonized by Gregory XV in 1622), Cosme de Torres, and Juan Fernández arrived in Kagoshima, Japan, from Spain with hopes of bringing Catholicism to Japan. On September 29, St. Francis Xavier visited Shimazu Takahisa, the daimyō of Kagoshima, asking for permission to build the first Catholic mission in Japan. The daimyō agreed in hopes of creating a trade relationship with Europe.

The shogunate and the imperial government at first supported the Catholic mission and the missionaries, thinking that they would reduce the power of the Buddhist monks, and help trade with Spain and Portugal. By the late 1500s, the government had begun to grow wary of foreign influence; the shogunate was also concerned about colonialism. The government increasingly saw Catholicism as a threat, and started persecuting Catholics. Christianity was banned and those Japanese who refused to abandon their faith were killed.

Martyrdom: In the aftermath of the San Felipe incident of 1596, 26 Catholics – four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese from India (all of whom were Franciscan missionaries), three Japanese Jesuits, and 17 Japanese members of the Third Order of St. Francis, including three young boys – were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki on the orders of Hideyoshi Toyotomi on February 5, 1597. These individuals were raised on crosses and then pierced through with spears.

After the persecution of 1597, there were sporadic instances of martyrdom until 1614, in all about 70. 55 Catholics were martyred in Nagasaki on September 10, 1632, in what became known as the Great Genna Martyrdom. At this time Catholicism was officially outlawed. The Church remained without clergy and theological teaching disintegrated until the arrival of Western missionaries in the 19th century.

Shūsaku Endō's acclaimed novel Silence, drawn from the oral histories of Japanese Catholic communities, provides detailed accounts of the persecution of Catholic communities and the suppression of the Church.