Visiting Oe Catholic Church

A Merry Christmas to everyone.

In the afternoon of December 14, we went to Oe Tenshudo (大江天主堂), a Roman catholic church built on a hill in Amakusa, Kumamoto. Oe (大江) is a place where the first Christan church was built in Amakusa after the ban on Christianity in Japan was lifted in the Meiji period.

The current building was completed in 1933 by Father Garnier, a French missionary. He threw away his private property and built it.

I saw the statue of Virgin Mary when I got off the steps.

The church building from the side view.

The statue of Father Garnier. He came to Japan in 1885 for missionary work. From 1892 to 1941, he was the chief of the Oe Church until his death. He never came back to his mother country, France.

After that we went to a nearby spot, Amakusa Rozario-kan. At the museum, we saw a 3D short film of history of hidden Christian in the town.