Peter To Rot was already in prison. His cell was small, stuffy, and windowless. The soldiers only took him out of there from time to time to tend to the pigs. But even in this humiliating confinement, Peter remained serene. He prayed. He was grateful for the food brought by his mother and Paula, his wife. He did not complain, he did not fear. When asked about his imprisonment, he calmly said: “I am here because of marriage and faith. I will die for it.”
One day, Paula went to visit him accompanied by their two young children. She hoped to move him. Pregnant with their third child, she asked Peter to accept the Japanese request, to say that he would stop being a catechist, just to be released. Peter, with tenderness and firmness, made the sign of the cross and replied: “I must glorify the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and thus help my people.” He asked her to bring him his catechist’s cross — he wanted to keep it with him until the end.
That same day, he confided to his mother that the guards had called a Japanese doctor to give him an injection. He said, “I don’t know what that means. It’s probably a lie, because I’m not sick. Mother, hurry home and pray for me.”
At dusk, Peter washed, shaved, and put on clean clothes. He sat in front of the cell entrance and prayed. It was as if he knew. And he did know. That night, the soldiers and the doctor came. Despite efforts to hide everything, a prisoner witnessed the injection being administered. What followed was a long and painful agony. Peter suffered in silence. And, like Christ, without opening his mouth, he gave up his spirit.
The next morning, the soldiers announced, “Your catechist is dead.” Even under surveillance, a crowd rushed to his funeral. The people already venerated him as a martyr. The news of his death spread, and his story began to be told in all directions. His fidelity spoke louder than any decree. His surrender bore fruit. In his village, in the following years, priests, religious, and vocations arose — all formed in the witness of that catechist who preferred to die rather than deny his faith.
Peter To Rot is the first saint to be canonized in our Chevalier Family. And he is a layman. Married. A father. A catechist. Father Chevalier’s dream is realized in him: the Kingdom built not only by priests and religious, but by lay people who live and proclaim the love of the Heart of Jesus in the world. Peter had no pulpit, but he had faith. He had no power, but he had courage. He died without human glory, but he lives on as a seed of the living Church.
By Fr. Fernando Clemente, MSC, Postulator General and Procurator General