Servant of God Takashi Nagai

Takashi Nagai (永井 隆; 3 February 1908 – 1 May 1951) was a Japanese Catholic physician, author, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. His subsequent life of prayer and service earned him the affectionate title "saint of Urakami". His cause for canonization was opened in 2021 and he has been titled a Servant of God. Takashi (meaning "nobility") Nagai had a difficult birth that endangered his and his mother's life. His family was highly educated. His father, Noboru Nagai, was trained in Western medicine; his paternal grandfather, Fumitaka Nagai, was a practitioner of traditional herbal medicine; and his mother, Tsune, was the descendant of an old family of samurai. Nagai was born in Matsue and grew up in the rural area of Mitoya, raised according to the teachings of Confucius and the Shinto religion. In 1920, he commenced his secondary studies at Matsue High School boarding at his cousins' home close by. He became increasingly interested with the surrounding atheism but was curious about Christianity. In April 1928, he joined the Nagasaki Medical College where he joined the Araragi, a poetry group founded by Mokichi Saito and the university basketball team (he measured 1.71 m and weighed 70 kg). In 1930 his mother died from a brain hemorrhage, which led him to ponder the works of philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal. He began to read the Pensées, which influenced his later conversion to Catholicism, and boarded with the Moriyama family, who for seven generations had been the hereditary leaders of a group of Kakure Kirishitans in Urakami. Takashi learned that the construction of the nearby Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Nagasaki was financed by poor Christian farmers and fishermen. He graduated in 1932 and was supposed to deliver an address at the ceremony. However, five days before the event, he became intoxicated at a farewell party and returned home completely soaked with water from the rain.