Agnès Phila
1909-1940 20th century Feast day: December 16
Writing one's refusal calmly, without raising the voice, and signing it.
Who was Agnès Phila?
A sister of the Lovers of the Holy Cross in the village of Songkhon on the Mekong, she taught school and catechism there. Late in 1940 the Thai police drove out the priest and ordered the Christian villagers to renounce their faith. On 26 December she wrote to the chief of police in her own name and in the name of everyone in the house; that same day she was taken to the cemetery and shot with another sister and four laywomen, three of them teenagers and one a woman of fifty-nine.
In their own words
Yesterday evening you received your order to wipe out, definitely, the Name of God, the only Lord of our lives and minds. We adore him only, Sir.
We are ready to give back our lives to God who gave them to us.
We keep your commands, O God, we wish to be witnesses to you.