Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung

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Saint Peter's Square by Pope John Paul II
Major shrineAssumption Cathedral, Bangkok
Feast12 January

Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung (

seminarians in such while teaching Salesian priests the Thai language.[6][7] He was thrown into prison in 1941 when the Thai authorities accused him of espionage and collaboration with the French (whom the Thai were hostile towards) and he died in 1944 from tuberculosis after prolonged periods of mistreatment.[8][7][1]

He is the first

Saint Peter's Square.[2][6]

Early life

Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung was born on 31 January 1895 in Nakhon Pathom as one of six children to Joseph Poxang and Agnes Thiang Kitbamrung; some sources suggest that he was born on 28 February though his parish's baptismal register disputes this.[1] Both parents were converts to the faith.[3] Kitbamrung received baptism on 5 February in the parish of Saint Peter's from Father (and future bishop) René-Marie-Joseph Perros with the name "Benedict".[5]

He commenced his ecclesial studies in Hang Xan at the Sacred Heart ecclesial institute in 1908 (1908–16) and completed a period in which he worked as a

diaconate (September 1925).[2][5]

Missionary works

He received his

Chinese dialect Hakka himself.[3][5][7]

Kitbamarung assisted the Salesians after their arrival on 26 October 1927 in Thailand in

Lampang but Mirabel had a change of heart and wanted Kitbamrung to work there while Mirabel travelled further north. It was there he continued to evangelize and he even helped out his fellow priests with their financial debts.[6][2]

In 1930 he was sent to northern

lapsed Catholics and to re-evangelize the region.[3] He was then sent to the Khorat district to engage further in catechesis and evangelization while he himself evangelized almost unexplored lands along the Laos border in 1937.[7]

Persecution

Kitbamrung fought for the freedom of worship and the right to profess faith in a culture that was

Buddhist with the Thai government being Buddhist (and preferring Buddhism) itself. The authorities regarded Kitbamrung with suspicion and came to accuse him of collaborating with the French (whom the Thai were hostile towards).[8] The Thai authorities regarded him as a dangerous individual who wanted to incite Thais to rebel against the government of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram
.

In the French Indochina war he was accused of acting as an informant for France (espionage) and was arrested for this on 12 January 1941 while at the Santa Teresa parish. But before his arrest he went to Saint Joseph's church at Ban Han on 11 January to join Father Ambrosio Kin Minlukum (its pastor) but found he was not there. He instead gathered the parishioners to remind them to attend the next Mass which he would preside over himself. He rang the bell the following morning at 8:30am which proved the trigger for the authorities to arrest him.[1] Kitbamrung was prosecuted for "rebellion against the kingdom" and imprisoned in Bang Khwang prison.[8][6] He was sentenced to over a decade of imprisonment (he would have been in prison until 1956 had he survived) where he baptized 68 prison companions and preached the Gospel to them.[2]

Death

He died due to

rosaries on a frequent basis since he found consolation in doing so.[7] His remains are now buried under the main altar at the Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok.[6]

Beatification

From 1992 the faithful in Bangkok started to press the archdiocese to initiate the cause for the late priest's beatification. The formal application was sent to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome who accepted the request.[8] The cause started on 7 March 1995 after the C.C.S. declared "nihil obstat" (no objections) to the cause and titled Kitbamrung as a Servant of God. The diocesan process lasted little more than a week in a short diocesan process that the Cardinal Archbishop of Bangkok Michael Michai Kitbunchu oversaw from 13 to 23 January 1998; the C.C.S. validated this process some months later on 29 May prior to receiving the Positio
for evaluation in 1999.

Theologians confirmed the cause on 29 October 1999 as did the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. three months later on 11 January 2000. The confirmation of his beatification arrived a week later on 27 January after

Saint Peter's Square
on 5 March 2000.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Biographies of New Blesseds – 2000". EWTN. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung". Saints SQPN. 10 December 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Kitbamrung, Nicholas Bunkerd, Bl. – Dictionary definition of Kitbamrung, Nicholas Bunkerd, Bl. | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  4. ISBN 9780567664150
    .
  5. ^ a b c d "The Blessed Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung". Divine Travels Thailand. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Beato Nicola Bunkerd Kitbamrung". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Bl. Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung". Catholic Online. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  8. ^ a b c d AsiaNews.it (18 May 2015). "THAILAND Catholics remember the Blessed Fr Kitbamrung, priest and martyr of the Thai Church". www.asianews.it. Retrieved 29 June 2017.

External links

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