Blessed Agata Phutta

Agatha Phutta (1881 – December 26, 1940) was a Thai blessed of the Catholic Church. Born into a pagan family, she was baptized at the age of 21 and worked as a school cook. Between 1940 and 1944, Thailand was at war with French Indochina. During this period, foreign missionaries were expelled from Thailand, and local Catholics were pressured to renounce their faith. On December 25, 1940, in Songkhon, local police gathered the Catholics and gave them an ultimatum: renounce their faith or face death. Because Agatha Phutta refused to renounce her faith, she was shot the following day along with two nuns, Agnes Phila and Lucia Khambang, and three other individuals: Cecilia Butsi, Bibiana Khampai, and Maria Phon. All those shot on December 26, 1940, as well as the catechist and leader of the Christian community in Songkhon, Philip Siphong Onphitak, who was killed on December 16, 1940, in Mukdahan, were beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 22, 1989, as part of the group of the Seven Martyrs of Thailand.