page_title: Luis Sotelo
section_title: Return to Japan and Martyrdom
hierarchical_section_title: Luis Sotelo / Return to Japan and Martyrdom
context_page_description: Luis Sotelo, in English known also as Louis Sotelo, was a Franciscan friar from Spain who died as a martyr in Japan, in 1624, and was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1867.
context_section_description: When Masamune Date sent a ship to collect him from the Philippines in order to bring him back to Sendai, the Spanish authorities forbade Sotelo to board it and would not allow him to make his own boat and sail there. He finally managed to enter Japan in 1622 and was turned over to the authorities by Chinese merchants when he was discovered on their ship. He was imprisoned for two years at Ōmura, north of Nagasaki, while the shōgun deliberated on his case. In the local prison, he joined Pedro Vásquez, Miguel de Carvalho and two Japanese Franciscans, Ludovicus Sasada and tertiary Ludovicus Baba. Sotelo was burned at the stake in Ōmura, on 25 August 1624, at the age of 50, together with his religious companions.
  He was beatified by Pope Pius IX on 7 July 1867. In the Roman Catholic Church, his feast day is celebrated on 25 August, as well as 10 September, the anniversary of the massacre of 205 Japanese martyrs.
caption: Hasekura's embassy to the Pope in Rome in 1617, accompanied by Luis Sotelo. Japanese painting, 17th century
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