Takashi Nagai: life, conversion and prayer
Takashi Nagai was a physician specializing in radiology, who converted to Catholicism. After his death, he left a large number of essays, memoirs, drawings and calligraphies on various themes, including God. He was proclaimed a servant of God by the Catholic Church and is often referred to as "the saint of Nagasaki". The beatification process for Takashi and his wife Midori was opened in 2021.
Biography of Takashi Nagai
Childhood and education
Takashi Nagai was born into a family of doctors on February 3, 1908. His father practiced Western medicine and his paternal grandfather traditional herbal medicine. His mother was descended from an ancient samurai family.
Takashi was raised in the Shinto religion and according to the teachings of Confucius. In 1920, he attended high school near Matsue, on the west coast of the Japanese island of Honshu. Gradually, he became imbued with the prevailing atheism and distanced himself from his native religion.
In April 1928, he entered Nagasaki Medical University. It was during his studies that he discovered Catholicism, as his university was located 500 meters from the city's cathedral (it was his fascination with the building that led him to start researching the Christian faith). But he was still an atheist, and believed only in mankind, science and patriotic and cultural values.
In 1930, he was called back to his mother's bedside after she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He returned urgently to his parents' home. He arrived on time, his mother looked him intensely in the eyes and died shortly afterwards. Takashi was shaken by this moment: he now believed in the existence of the soul. Thanks to one of his teachers, he discoverd Blaise Pascal and started reading his Pensées. He became more sensitive and attentive to patients, unlike his teachers, whom he found rigid.
Discovery of the Christian faith
A year later, he began to wonder about Christian life and prayer. He became interested in this religion, and stayed with the Moriyama family, descendants of the Kakure Kirishitan (underground Christian) group. The Moriyama couple had only one daughter, Midori, who was a schoolteacher in a nearby town.
Unfortunately, in 1932, he contracted a disease in his right ear that left him partially deaf. Takashi had to give up medicine, and turned to radiological research.
On the night of December 24 that year, Midori invited him to attend Christmas mass with her and her parents, and Takashi was overwhelmed by the number of people praying, their singing and their radiant faith. He recalls: "I felt someone close to me whom I didn't know yet".
The following night, Midori was struck by an acute attack of appendicitis. Takashi examined her quickly, called the hospital surgeon urgently and carried Midori in his arms through the snow. The appendicitis was caught in time, and the young woman was unharmed.
In January 1933, Takashi left for his military service. He received a package from Midori: gloves and a Catholic catechism book. Throughout his stay in Manchuria, he cared for the sick and wounded, and was deeply shaken in his belief in Japanese culture.
On his return, he continued his Christian reading and decided to meet a priest: Father Moriyama.
Conversion and baptism
On June 9, 1934, Takashi was baptized into the Catholic faith and took the name Paul. He then asked Midori to marry him, and she accepted.
In August 1934, at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday, Paul-Takashi Nagai and Maria-Midori Moriyama were married in the presence of the priest and two witnesses at Urakami Cathedral. Takashi was confirmed in December of the same year.
Later, Takashi became a member of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Society. He visited the sick and brought help and comfort to the poor.
Takashi and Midori welcomed four children: a son, Makoto (born April 3, 1935) and three daughters, Ikuko (born July 7, 1937, died 1939), Sasano, who died shortly after birth, and Kayano (born August 18, 1941).
Between 1931 and 1936, Takashi met Saint Maximilian Kolbe on several occasions (notably during Kolbe's x-rays, as he had a weak constitution), who had just founded a monastery in a suburb of Nagasaki.
Military service and world conflict
When war broke out between China and Japan, Kolbe was drafted as a surgeon and had to leave. Unfortunately, in 1939, he learned of the death of his father and then of his daughter Ikuko. At the end of the war, he resumed his research in radiology and his university courses.
Japan declared war on the United States on December 8, 1941. On April 26, 1945, an air raid on Nagasaki left many dead. In June 1945, he was diagnosed with leukemia, due to overexposure to X-rays. His life expectancy was 2 to 3 years.
Midori and Takashi took refuge in their faith in God to overcome this ordeal.
On August 6, 1945, Takashi learned that an atomic bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki. Midori and Takashi decided to send their children to the countryside. The couple saw each other for the last time on the morning of August 8. The bomb hit the city at 11:02 on August 9. Takashi survived (he was in the basement of the hospital, so he was protected) and immediately went to work for the wounded. On August 11, he managed to find the site of his house, and found his wife's body, burnt and praying, rosary in hand.
End of life
From October 1945 until the end of his life, he lived with his two children and his mother-in-law in a small hut made of odds and ends. He mourned the loss of his wife for 6 months.
On November 23, 1945, a mass was celebrated in front of the ruins of the cathedral for the victims of the bomb. Takashi gave a poignant speech, filled with faith and love, comparing the victims to a sacred offering for peace.
From July 1946 onwards, he was bedridden, as he was practically paralyzed. On December 3, 1949, he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Nagasaki.
Paul-Takashi Nagai returned to God on May 1, 1951, at 9:30pm, aged 43.
On May 3, 20,000 people attended his funeral in front of the cathedral. His remains are interred in Sakamoto International Cemetery.
Prayer for the intercession, beatification and canonization of Paul Takashi Nagai and Marina Midori Moriyama
"O merciful Father,
You who never leave your children alone on the path of life,
we thank you for having given
to the people of faith and to the whole world
Paul Takashi Nagai and Marina Midori, his wife.
Midori, after leading her husband to friendship with you,
in humble dedication to his vocation,
showed him the way to perfect charity.
Together, in trusting abandonment to your will,
they gave a face to the good that your Providence
knows how to draw even from evil, and they have become
heralds of hope and witnesses of charity
for your wounded people.
After the death of his wife,
moving forward in profound poverty of spirit,
Takashi experienced in the atomic desert
the tenderness of your friendship and,
a witness to grace and the hundredfold,
he brought back to his people a taste for life
and the courage to rebuild.
Grant us all
through the intercession of your two spouses,
the grace to respond to our personal call to holiness
and give us, if it is for your greater glory,
the grace we implore [...]
in the hope that these spouses may soon
be numbered among your saints.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen."
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