WU ANBANG, PETER, ST.

Lay martyr, catechist, writer, member of the Third Order of St. Francis; b. 1860, ; d. July 9, 1900, Taiyüan, Shanxi Province, China. Peter Wu Anbang (Wu An-pan or U-Ngan-Pan), born into a Catholic family headed by Wu Gende, studied in the Franciscan seminary at Taiyüan, but was never ordained after determining that he had no priestly vocation. Nevertheless he served the community in the priests' refectory, as footman to Fr. Elias Facchini, as a catechist, and as copyist for Bp. Gregorio grassi. Peter wrote a booklet entitled Veneration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as well as poetry. Because he was a professed Catholic and refused to deny the faith, he was beaten and hanged from a beam by soldiers when he attempted to take money to priests hiding in the village of Changgou (June 28, 1900). He was released when he promised not to continue working for foreigners. Peter was among the several dozen Christians trapped inside the Taiyuan cathedral, arrested by the Boxers on July 5, 1900, and beheaded four days later. He was beatified by Pope Pius XII (Nov. 24, 1946) and canonized (Oct. 1, 2000) by Pope John Paul II with Augustine Zhao Rong and companions.

Feast: July 4.

Bibliography: l. m. balconi, Le Martiri di Taiyuen (Milan 1945). Acta Apostolicae Sedis 47 (1955) 381–388; Vita del b. A. Crescitelli (Milan 1950). m. t. de blarer, Les Bse Marie Hermine de Jésus et ses compagnes, franciscaines missionnaires de Marie, massacrées le 9 juillet 1900 à Tai-Yuan-Fou, Chine (Paris 1947). Les Vingt-neuf martyrs de Chine, massacrés en 1900, béatifiés par Sa Sainteté Pie XII, le 24 novembre, 1946 (Rome 1946). l. miner, China's Book of Martyrs: A Record of Heroic Martyrdoms and Marvelous Deliverances of Chinese Christians during the Summer of 1900 (Ann Arbor 1994). j. simon, Sous le sabre des Boxers (Lille 1955). c. testore, Sangue e palme sul fiume giallo. I beati martiri cinesi nella persecuzione della Boxe Celi Sud-Est, 1900 (Rome 1955). L'Osservatore Romano, Eng. Ed. 40 (2000): 1–2, 10.

[k. i. rabenstein]