Bls. Peter and Susanna Araki Chobyoye

Susanna, Japanese Catholics, were arrested by the pagan Japanese authorities for having lodged missionary priests in their home. As the two stood before the judge, Susanna took into her arms their three-year-old daughter and asked that their child's name be added to the official list of Christians. Several days later, as the couple was being led away, Susanna took her husband's hand and said to him, "I believe that they are going to torture us. I am going away first, and I hope with the help of God to remain faithful; I expect of you a like firmness." The torturers assailed Susanna's modesty by stripping her and hanging her from a tree by her hair. They then tied Susanna's daughter to her feet, leaving the two suspended and exposed to the bitter cold for eight hours. After surviving this ordeal, Susanna was bound around the neck with an iron collar and chained to a column in a kitchen, where she was kept thus as a slave for the next six months. On July 12, 1626, Susanna was beheaded, after which her husband Peter was burned at the stake.