ABSTRACT
Earlier, Marian confrarias had coexisted alongside Misericórdian confrarias; however, the nationwide persecutions after 1612 prompted every Kirishitan woman and man to be included in the structures of Marian confrarias.5 After the Madre de Deus incident in 1612, the Tokugawa government tightened security against the Portuguese and Spanish and suspected Kirishitan communities of harboring these nanbanjin. To avoid arrest, the Jesuits went underground. Suffering a severe shortage of padres, the lay ministers of the Marian confrarias, called kanbō, “the head,” or sometimes “padres,” took over the sacramental responsibilities of baptism, funeral, and confession.6 These congregational heads oversaw discipline of the members and prepared them to receive the sacraments of absolution and
Frequent Communion,” in Confraternities and Catholic Reform, 75-6; and O’Malley, The First Jesuits, 196-9, on European Jesuit Marian congregations.
