Prayer to Saint Peter To Rot — lay catechist, first saint of Oceania

Melanesian lay catechist, born in Rakunai (East New Britain, Papua New Guinea) in 1912. Married to Paula Ia Varpit, father of three children. When the Japanese army occupied the island in 1942 and imprisoned all the missionaries, he alone took up the sacramental life of the community — catechesis, preparation for baptism, distribution of the reserved Eucharist. Faced with the Japanese reintroduction of polygamy, he publicly defended Christian marriage. For this he was arrested, and in July 1945 he was killed in a Japanese cell, probably by lethal injection. Beatified by St John Paul II in Port Moresby on 17 January 1995 — first Blessed of Oceania. Canonised by Pope Leo XIV on 19 October 2025, World Mission Sunday — first saint of Papua New Guinea and of Melanesian Oceania. Feast: 7 July.

Lord, Shepherd of your Church, who gave to Saint Peter To Rot, lay catechist and father of a family, the courage to keep alive the Eucharist, baptism and Christian marriage in his village when all the missionaries had been imprisoned, and to shed his blood for the indissolubility of marriage against the reintroduction of polygamy: grant to Christian families his conjugal fidelity, to lay catechists his apostolic zeal, and to the Church in all the lands of mission his confidence that grace remains even when the priest is missing. Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.