‎[Junshin Joshi Tanki Daigaku] - ‎ ‎PETITJEAN, Mgr Bernard ; Junshin Joshi Tanki Daigaku - Immaculate Heart College (Kagoshima)‎
‎Puchijan-Shikyo-Shokanshu [ Bishop Petitjean's correspondence ]‎

‎1 vol. 8vo., col. or b. & w. pictures, Junshin Joshi Tanki Daigaku , 1986, 309 pp. Text in Japanese only.‎

Reference : 34026

‎A nice copy. Title (in Japanese) : ; Editor (in Japanese) : . Scarce. Bishop Bernard-Thadée Petitjean (1829-1884) was a priest of the French Societe des Missions Etrangeres (Paris). He was among the first foreigners to arrive in Japan (in 1860), after the forced entry by Commodore Perry in 1854. After having settled a Catholic Church in the city of Nagaski, since father Petitjean had no Japanese visitor, there was no evidence of any Japanese christian still alive in this area of Japan. In March 1865 however, in a famous moment, he discovered a small group of 15 japanese citizens in his church, though Japanese people were still strictly forbidden to associate with Christians and though the small church in Nagasaki had been declared to be reserved only for foreigners. These visitors were no usual ones, but hidden catholic Japanese believers, whose community had been outlawed and slaughtered by the Japanese authorities during more than 200 years. This unexpected meeting was, for Westerners, the very first evidence that Christianism had managed to survive in Japan under the Tokugawa administration. In 1866, Father Petitjean was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Japan. Persecutions against Christianism in Japan ended only in 1873.‎