[kitski]

Pope Benedict XVI will beatify next month 188 Catholics who were martyred in various parts of Japan in the early 17th century, a Vatican diplomatic source said Saturday. So far a total of 247 people related to Japan have either been beatified or canonized including the famous 26 martyrs of Japan, including four Spaniards, one Mexican and one Portuguese, who were killed in Nagasaki in 1597.

While many of the saints and the blessed in Japan were clerics in Nagasaki, which was a port city open to foreign traders in feudal Japan, the latest list of the blessed represents a regional diversity from northeastern to southwestern Japan, the source said. A majority of the 188 are also laymen and one-third, or around 60, are women, and the list includes one family whose members were all martyrs, according to the source.