IL PELLEGRINAGGIO GIAPPONESE ALLA SANTA SEDE: LA SPERANZA DI UN DIALOGO (MARZO 1585)

The year 2025 marks the 440th anniversary of the Tenshō Ambassadorship (1585-2025): the first Japanese Christians were received by Pope Gregory XIII (Boncompagni), founder and protector of the Gregorian University, who erected from the foundations a new seat of the Roman College, solemnly inaugurated in 1584, and endowed it with benefits and privileges, extending them to any college of the Society of Jesus, in which philosophy and theology were cultivated, even to Japan.

The Tenshō embassy was the first Japanese diplomatic mission sent to Europe, leaving for the old continent at the behest of the Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano The arrival in Rome is documented on 22 March. The opportunity to confirm the date of 17 March 2025 is also to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the discovery of the hidden Christian faithful in Japan (17 March 1865 -17 March 2025).

To celebrate this important anniversary also on the occasion of the Jubilee Year (2025), the Pontifical Gregorian University with the Embassy of Japan to the Holy See and in collaboration with the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Dicastery of Evangelisation, Section for Fundamental Questions of Evangelisation in the World and the Archdiocese of Lucca, have  promoted an international study day entitled ‘The Japanese Pilgrimage to the Holy See: the hope of a dialogue (March 1585)' and as part of the “Thesaurum fidei” project, inaugurated in 2023 and coordinated by Msgr. Paolo Giulietti, Archbishop of Lucca and Professor Olimpia Niglio, University of Pavia and Archdiocese of Lucca.