Peter Wu Guosheng

Peter Wu Guosheng (Chinese: 吴国盛; 1768 – November 7, 1814) was a Chinese Catholic martyr.

Life

He was born in 1768 in the town of Longping in Zunyi county in Guizhou. Prior to his baptism, he was an innkeeper.

A Catholic layman named Xu, who had been sent to Guizhou by Fr. Luo Madi of Sichuan, stayed at Wu Guosheng's inn. On this occasion, Xu spoke to Wu Guosheng about Christianity and convinced Wu Guosheng to believe. Xu later invited a church elder from Sichuan to speak to Wu Guosheng.

Wu Guosheng became very fervent for the faith and although he was not yet baptized, he would insist that those who visited his inn come to accept Jesus. Fr. Luo Madi later also went to visit Wu Guosheng and felt that Wu Guosheng's way of trying to force people to accept the faith was wrong. He then invited Wu Guosheng to come to Sichuan and see how other Catholics carried out evangelization. In 1795 he came to Chongqing and after having seen the model of other Catholics, Wu Guosheng deeply regretted his prior behaviour. Luo Madi then baptized him the following year with the name Christian name of Peter.

He returned back to Longping and engaged in a great deal of evangelization among the local people. The Catholic community grew to several hundred people.

In 1814, a new wave of persecution against Christians occurred in China as a result of the policies of the Jiaqing Emperor. On April 3rd of that year, he was arrested and put in prison. He encouraged the other prisoners and refused the orders of the magistrate to trample on the cross. He was strangled by hanging on November 7th of that year.

Canonization

He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on May 27th 1900 and later canonized as a saint by John Paul II on October 1st 2000.