Peter To Rot
| Blessed Peter To Rot | |
|---|---|
| catechist | |
| Born | 1912 New Pomerania, German New Guinea (today New Britain, Papua New Guinea) |
| Died | 1945 Rakunai, New Britain, Territory of New Guinea |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 17 January 1995, Port Moresby by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 7 July |
Peter To Rot (/toʊroʊt/ (1912?-1945) was a native of what is now Papua New Guinea, who was beatified as a martyr by the Catholic Church in 1995.
Peter To Rot was born in 1912 on the island of New Pomerania, then part of German New Guinea. Two years later, on the outbreak of World War I, Australia took possession of German New Guinea, which in 1919 became the Territory of New Guinea, a League of Nations mandate territory under Australian administration. New Pomerania is now called New Britain and is part of Papua New Guinea.
Peter was the third of six children of Angelo Tu Puia and Maria Ia Tumul of Rakunai, who had become Catholic Christians in 1898. Although education was not obligatory, his father sent him to the local mission school when he was seven. At 18 years of age, he began a three-year course of studies at Saint Paul's College of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Taliligap, after which he was commissioned as a catechist for the parish of Rakunai in 1933.
In 1936, he married Paula Ia Varpit, with whom he had three children.
When Japanese forces occupied the Territory of New Guinea in January 1942, they interned the foreign missionaries. The parish priest left To Rot in charge of his parish. He became its active leader. Towards the end of 1943, the Japanese authorities restricted religious services and a few months later forbade them entirely. To Rot continued to hold them secretly but was denounced by a native policeman who wanted to take a polygamous second wife, something that the Japanese authorities had legalised but that was opposed by To Rot as contrary to Catholic teaching. To Rot was sentenced to two months' imprisonment and before the time set for his release killed by beating and a lethal injection in June or July 1945.
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