Bl. Peter To Rot: Martyr of Marriage

Peter To Rot was born in 1912 in a village named Rakunai in what is today Papua New Guinea. The region had for some time been visited by Christian missionaries, but Peter’s father, Angelo To Puia, who was chief of the village, and his mother, Maria la Tumul, were baptized as adults and were among the first Catholics in the country.

Peter was one of six children and from an early age he was very interested in his faith. Because of this, he was trained to be a catechist, a teacher of religion. So when Peter was 18 he became a student at St. Paul’s Mission School. He was a very good student and became a catechist within three years, the youngest of all the catechists in Papua New Guinea. He worked with the people of Rakunai and was known to be an excellent teacher. Peter always carried a Bible with him and knew much of it by heart. In 1936 he married Paula la Varpit, a Catholic from a nearby village. They had three children, but only his daughter, Rufina, survived past childhood.

World War II changed the lives of the people of Papua New Guinea forever. The Japanese forces occupied the island nation, and all missionaries were imprisoned. This left Peter as the only spiritual leader of all Catholics in the area. He provided prayer services, instruction, the Eucharist and Baptism for people and helped the poor. He built a church for Catholics from tree branches — the only material available. When people were afraid, he reminded them that God was with them.

In 1942, the Japanese forbade all Christian worship and any type of religious gatherings, even those in homes. They wanted the local chieftains to cooperate with them and tried to push the tribes back to their pre-Christian forms of life, including such practices as having several wives. Peter’s older brother supported this. But Peter did not, and when he became loud in his protests and was known to hold Catholic prayer services in caves, he was seen as a problem for the Japanese. In 1945 he was arrested and sentenced to several months in prison.

But the Japanese leaders had no intention of allowing Peter to leave prison, because his catechetical work and the support people had for him was too dangerous to their cause. At one point he told his visiting wife and mother that a Japanese doctor had been called to give him medicine, even though he had not been sick, and he believed he would be killed. He told his family that he would die for the Church.

He was praying when men came for him. Witnesses say he was given a drink and an injection, and his mouth was covered. The next morning, Japanese authorities acted very surprised to find Peter To Rot dead. But marks on his body and other signs made it clear he had not died of natural causes.

He was given a chief’s funeral in the Catholic cemetery, but the funeral was held in silence because people feared the Japanese. From the day of his funeral, he was seen as a martyr for the Catholic faith.

On January 17, 1995, Pope John Paul II visited Papua New Guinea to celebrate the beatification of Peter To Rot.

Purificacion Pedro

Purificacion Pedro was a church social worker who died in a Bataan hospital in 1977 while under military detention.

Purificacion Pedro, known as Puri to her friends, took up a degree in social work at the University of the Philippines in 1969. She was among the topnotchers in the National Board Examination for Accreditation of Social Workers. For the next four years, she served as a devoted social worker of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Quezon City.

Purificacion (“Puri”) spent most of her professional years working as social worker at Immaculate Concepcion Parish in Cubao, Quezon City. She helped run a parish day nursery, a sewing group for urban poor women and several cooperatives. During the floods in 1972, Puri volunteered her services, bringing medicine and relief goods to many affected areas around Quezon City.

She left her parish job in 1974 and worked as a volunteer for the organizations supporting the anti-Chico Dam movement in Northern Luzon. In 1976, she had been accepted as a staff member of the Luzon Secretariat for Social Action (LUSSA).

But she died before she could start on the job. Days before, Puri had gone on a clandestine trip to Bataan to visit with friends who have joined the New People’s Army. Her timing was off , however, because a military operation was in progress at the area. She was captured in an armed encounter, with a bullet wound in her shoulder.

Puri’s family found her at the Bataan Provincial Hospital, recovering from her wound and under military guard. Her relatives took turns watching her because Puri asked them never to leave her alone with her military captors.

On her sixth day of confinement, however, constabulary intelligence men from Manila came and forced their way into her room. They drove out Puri’s watcher, saying they were interrogating Puri. Puri was left alone with them for one hour inside her hospital room. After they had left, Puri was found dead, strangled inside her hospital bathroom. She was 29 years old.

Hermana Fausta Labrador

 

Hermana Fausta Labrador (December 19, 1858 – December 13, 1942) is a Filipino Servant of God in pending cause for sainthood and is venerated in Roman Catholic Church. Her cause to be a servant of God is currently underway. She founded the Colegio del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, a charity school for poor children that has evolved into what is now Sacred Heart College in Lucena City.

 Hermana Fausta Labrador was born on December 19, 1858 in Tayabas, Quezon, to Nemesia Zarzadias. On December 22, 1858 she was baptized in St. Archangel church, Tayabas. On December 2, 1866 her mother died at age 27. Father had a second marriage to Maria Poblete. She has half-sisters Fe and Felisa. She started schooling in 1869. In 1879 she studied in Colegio de Santa Rosa de Manila.

Fr. Granja visited them in the new house and counselled them to live in harmony. He gave Fausta "guidelines" regarding the house. Call all members of the new household, admonish them to live in the harmony. He imparted his paternal blessing with these words: "May the peace reign in this house." They all went to Church except the old Juan. From this day on the Rule of Life was: Hermana to get up at 3 AM everyday; her companions at 4 AM to pray together the Rosary and Trisagion. Afterwards companions remain to tidy the house. Hermana goes immediately to the church. Her companions follow her when the church bells ring for mass. Together they leave the church for breakfast. After which each to its respective chores while Hermana and Flaviana remain in the house. These consisted of: engage in sewing baptismal robes and burial clothes; make scapulars and artificial flowers to generate income to meet their daily needs; answer the call of the sick and help those in their last agony. May devotion in the church urging people to participate especially the young. Floral offering to the Blessed Virgin. Introduction of the Apostleship of Prayer all the town people were members.

Gobernadorcillo Don Demetrio Trinidad issued an ordinance to gather the old people of both sexes living near the shores who had not gone to Confession for a long time and sorting them: the men to the courthouse (tribunal), the women to the house of Hermana Fausta to be instructed daily to receive the Sacrament of Confession and Communion." He started and continued every year the following devotion: on Quinquagesima Sunday (Domingo de Carnaval) to Ash Wednesday we gather in recollection in preparation of the outrages inflicted to the Heart of Jesus during these three days.Gather the "dalagas" (young woman) for Catechism lesson by order of Fr. Granja. They lived in this house. Fr. Granja provided for their upkeeping, food and clothing. To help him, I go from house to house begging.

Daily Work of Hermana Fausta:

"Every night Hermana Tomasa, Cesarea and Escolastica come to this house followed by Fr. Granja who explains what we have taught our charges during the day. Many, although already well prepared, do not like to leave and they remain in this house."

The Veneration Process of Hermana Fausta is now in underway to sainthood, but hasn't opened her cause yet by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. She will be remembered as a hero in the City of Lucena.

Fr. Antonius Joseph “Joep” Offermanns

Antonius Joseph “Joep” Offermanns was born on October 17, 1935 in Geilenkrichen, Germany. His family moved to the Netherlands where his father worked as a shoemaker, sacristan and organist of the parish church in their village. At an early age, he learned to play the organ. After his elementary education, he entered the minor seminary of the Carmelites.

Upon entrance to the novitiate, he was given the name, Crispin, the patron saint of the shoemakers, which reminded him always on the work of his father. He did his profession on October 3, 1955. He was ordained priest on July 10, 1960. In preparation for his future work for the school in the Philippines as a missionary, he was sent to the United States to take up Master of Arts in English and Education.

He arrived in the Philippines on 1964 and was assigned in Mount Carmel College, Escalante, Negros Occidental. Later, he worked in Magdalen Hospital as a Director and after a long process of self-examination, he opted to work in the social action center in Iligan City.

He was elected the Commissary Provincial in 1985 and served in this position up to his death. He was greatly involved in Justice and Peace work and task forces and other mission partners of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines.

After suffering from lung cancer, he passed away at the age of 55 on August 15, 1991 in Heerlen, Netherlands, where he underwent cancer therapy for a short while. He was buried on August 20, 1991 in Landgraaf, Netherlands. On the occasion of his silver anniversary of ordination, he said:

“My message today is one of struggle. Always, I have been a man of struggle. My objective always is to do everything that should be done. So, I am a mixture of patience and impatience. Hence, I wish to renew my commitment as a prophet and not a diplomat for the true total freedom of our suffering people.
It is the task of the religious to witness and bring life, of equality justice and peace for all. Otherwise, we would be guilty of their deaths. We should be prophets and not diplomats… the consequences can demand a high price.”