Martyrs of Thailand

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Martyrs of Thailand
Stone panels depicting the story of the Martyrs of Thailand, from the Our Lady of the Martyrs of Thailand Shrine in Mukdahan Province, Thailand.
Died	December 16–26, 1940
Martyred by	Songkhon police
Means of martyrdom	gunshot
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	October 22, 1989, Saint Peter's Basilica by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Our Lady of the Martyrs of Thailand Shrine
Saints Portal

The Martyrs of Thailand (called also Seven Blessed Martyrs of Songkhon) are seven Roman Catholics executed in Thailand in December 1940 by local police forces. They were beatified by Pope John Paul II in Rome on October 22nd, 1989.^[1]

Names of the martyrs:

Blessed Philip Siphong, catechist, 33 years old.
Blessed Sister Agnes Phila, 31 years old, belonged to Lovers of the Holy Cross Congregation.
Blessed Sister Lucia Khambang, 23 years old, belonged to Lovers of the Holy Cross Congregation.
Blessed Agatha Phutta, 59 years old.
Blessed Cecilia, 16 years old.
Blessed Bibiana Khamphai, 15 years old.
Blessed Maria Phorn, 14 years old.

[edit] Letter of Sister Agnes Phila to the police before the execution

To the Chief Police in Songkhon

Yesterday evening you received your order to wipe out, definitely, the Name of God, the Only Lord of our lives and minds. We adore Him only, Sir. A few days earlier, you had mentioned to us that you would not wipe out the Name of God and we were rather pleased with that in such a way that we put away our religious habits which showed that we were His handmaids. But it not so today. We do profess that the religion of Christ is the only true religion. Therefore, we would like to give our answer to your question, asked yesterday evening which we did not have a chance to respond because we were unprepared for it. Now we would like to give you our answer. We are asking you to carry out your order with us. Please do not delay any longer. Please carry out your order. Please open the door of heaven to us so that we can confirm that outside the Religion of Christ no none can go to heaven. Please do it. We are well prepared. When we will be gone we will remember you. Please take pity on our souls. We will be thankful to you and will be grateful to you for it. And on the last day we will see each other face to face.

Do wait and see, please. We keep your commands, oh God, we wish to be witnesses to You, dear God. We are: Agnes, Lucia, Phuttha, Budsi, Buakhai, Suwan. We would like to bring little Phuma along with us because we love her so much. We have already made up our minds, dear Sir.^[2]