
Nakaura Juliano was one of the vice ambassdor of Tensho Embassy.
He was the son of a Christian samurai, who died in battle when Julian was only two. Raised by a very devout mother, Julian also entered the seminario when he reached school age.
When the Embassy finally arrived in Rome and had an audience with the Pope, Gregorius XIII, poor Juliao was unable to attend the audience ceremony due to high fever. However, owing to an arrangement made by a nobility who heard of Juliao's earnest desire to have the honor of seeing the Pope, only Juliao had met with the Pope privately.
This memory of the Pope's kind reception and blessing determined the future course of his life and must have come to his support during the long years of underground ministry and the terrible hours in the pit.
Unlike other Embassies or Priests, Julian did not leave Japan with the exiled missionaries in 1614. He was one of the 27 Jesuits who remained to continue their ministry in secret. As an underground priest, Julian visited and preached to the persecuted Christians in many parts of the island of Kyushu.
Julian continued to work underground for twenty or so years, but he was finally arrested in Kokura and was deported to Nagasaki in 1633. Then, on October 18, he was sentenced to the punishment of anatsuri (hanging the convict upside down over a hole) along with Father Giovanni Adami, Father Antonio de Souza, Father Cristóvão Ferreira who were Jesuits, Father Lucus Spirito Santowho who was one of a Dominican, and three monks.
Julian died on October 21, his fourth day in the pit. His final words were, "I accept this great suffering for the love of God."