Blessed Maria Phon

Maria Phon (born January 6, 1926; died December 26, 1940) was a Thai blessed of the Catholic Church. She was baptized when she was one month old. Between 1940 and 1944, Thailand was at war with French Indochina. During this time, foreign missionaries were expelled from Thailand, and local Catholics were forced to renounce their faith. On December 25, 1940, in Songkhon, local police gathered the Catholics and announced that they must either renounce their faith or die. Because Maria Phon refused to renounce her faith, she was shot the following day along with two nuns (Agnes Phila and Lucia Khambang) and three other people (Agatha Phutta, Cecilia Butsi, and Bibiana Khampai). 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.