Domingos Chohachi Nakamura

Domingos Chōhachi Nakamura (ドミンゴス 中村長八) (2 August 1865 – 14 March 1940) was a Catholic missionary and priest from the Diocese of Nagasaki (Japan). He worked as a priest for 26 years in Japan and 17 years in Brazil, where he died in 1940 with a reputation for holiness. He is now a Servant of God.

Life
Nakamura was born in Fukue-jima, the main island of the Goto Islands (Nagasaki Prefecture), in a Catholic family. At the age of 3 he lost his father in a maritime accident, and his mother and sister at the age of 15. In 1880. he joined the Catholic Seminary in Nagasaki, completing his studies in Philosophy and Theology with excellent grades. During these years he learned French and Latin, which would be useful for his future missionary work outside Japan. On February 7, 1897, Nakamura was ordained by Jules-Alphonse Cousin, bishop of Nagasaki.

Starting two weeks after his priestly ordination, he worked for 26 years as a diocesan priest in the island of Amami Oshima (Kagoshima Prefecture), before emigrating to Brazil in 1923 to work on behalf of the Japanese migrants living there, where he worked until his death for 17 years. Nakamura was the first Japanese missionary to work abroad.

Despite his age, he worked from 58 to 76 years old in the pastoral work of Japanese migrants in the Brazilian states of São Paulo, Mato Grosso, Paraná and south part of Minas Gerais. He died in reputation for holiness in 1940, while in Álvares Machado. His process of beatification started in 2002, in the Diocese of Bauru (Brazil). The postulator is Rubens Miraglia Zani.

During his 17 years of pastoral work in Brazil, he namely baptized 1.750 people (1.304 Japanese, 440 Brazilians and 6 Japanese-Brazilians). Nakamura was the first priest to work on behalf of the Japanese community in Brazil; today, the majority of these Japanese descendants (nikkei) are Catholic, thanks to the evangelization work done throughout the 20th century by both Japanese and Brazilian priests.

Honors and appointments

 * In 1938 he was given the Papal medal of Saint Gregory the Great by Admiral Shinjiro Yamamoto, a Catholic admiral of the Japanese Navy and special envoy from Pope Pius XI.
 * In 1940 he was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Kagoshima (Japan), but the letter of papal appointment arrived in Álvares Machado some days after his death.