On 7 July 1945, in a Japanese internment cell somewhere on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain, a thirty-three-year-old man named Peter To Rot died. The exact cause of his death was never officially recorded. Witnesses later testified that a Japanese-employed medical orderly administered a lethal injection — punishment, in the occupiers' accounting, for continuing to minister to his people in secret and for refusing to accept the reimposition of polygamy among his Tolai congregation. He left behind a wife, Paula, and three young children. The youngest had been born while he was in prison.
Peter To Rot was not a priest. He held no clerical office. He was a catechist — a layman trained to teach the faith — in the village of Rakunai on the northeastern coast of New Britain, where the MSC missionaries had been building the Catholic Church since the 1880s. When the Japanese occupation of 1942 interned every foreign priest and religious in the region at the Vunapope mission complex, To Rot stepped forward to fill the void. He baptized infants, led prayer, instructed converts, and performed traditional marriage ceremonies. When Japanese authorities ordered the relaxation of Christian marriage norms and encouraged men to take multiple wives, he publicly opposed it. He was arrested. He kept ministering in his cell. He was arrested again. He died.
On 19 October 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized Peter To Rot in St. Peter's Square, Rome, naming him — alongside six other blessed — as a saint of the universal Church. He is the first canonized saint from Papua New Guinea, and the first indigenous Pacific Islander to be raised to the altars. Pilgrims now make their way to Rakunai along the road that climbs from Kokopo toward the interior of the Gazelle Peninsula, to a small chapel where his remains lie in a wooden box, in the village where he was born.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
Peter To Rot was born in 1912 in Rakunai, a Tolai village in the East New Britain region of what was then German New Guinea. His father, Angelo To Puia, was the village chief and a committed Catholic; his mother, Maria la Tumul, had been among the first local women to receive Catholic instruction from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. The MSC, a French-founded congregation, had arrived at Matupit Island in September 1882 and established their regional headquarters at Vunapope, near present-day Kokopo, in 1889. By Peter's birth, a generation of Catholic Tolai families had taken deep root.
At eighteen, To Rot enrolled at Saint Paul's Mission School at Vunapope. He completed the three-year program and returned to Rakunai in 1933, where he served as catechist for the remainder of his short life. In 1936 he married Paula la Varpit; they would have three children. His work combined religious instruction with pastoral care — he was, by the accounts of those who knew him, a man of visible personal discipline and warmth, qualities that gave his authority over the village's spiritual life a character quite different from priestly authority. It came, witnesses said, from who he was rather than from any office he held.
The Japanese invasion of the Bismarck Archipelago in January 1942 changed everything within weeks. Rabaul fell on 23 January. The MSC missionaries at Vunapope were interned at the mission compound itself, first under supervision and later in increasingly punitive conditions. With the foreign clergy confined, Rakunai had no priest. To Rot served in their place — not by claiming what the Church had not given him, but by doing everything a layman could legitimately do. He kept a written record of baptisms, marriages, and deaths. He maintained the liturgical calendar. When travel became dangerous, he moved at night between villages.
His opposition to polygamy brought the conflict to a head. Japanese occupation authorities, seeking to maximize local cooperation and fertility rates, encouraged a return to traditional Tolai customs that had predated Christianity, including plural marriage. To Rot refused to bless such arrangements and counseled his parishioners against them. In early 1945 he was arrested and held in the internment facility near Rabaul. He continued to celebrate informal prayer services in his cell and to minister to other prisoners. A second arrest followed. A Japanese doctor's assistant administered an injection on 7 July 1945. He died that day.
The war ended five weeks later.
His cause for canonization opened in 1986, led by the Archdiocese of Rabaul under Archbishop Albert-Leo Bundervoet, M.S.C. The diocesan investigation ran from 1987 to 1989. Pope John Paul II traveled to Port Moresby to beatify him on 17 January 1995 — the first beatification ceremony held on Papua New Guinean soil. The date of his feast day, 7 July, corresponds to the day of his martyrdom. Pope Francis formally approved his canonization on 28 March 2025, and Pope Leo XIV proclaimed him saint on 19 October 2025, describing him and his fellow blessed in the canonization homily as "martyrs for their faith."
The significance of that martyrdom in Papua New Guinea's Catholic life is difficult to overstate. The Church there counts roughly 27 percent of the national population among its faithful, served in large part by an indigenous lay ministry whose model is precisely Peter To Rot: the married man, the village teacher, the father who held the congregation together when the ordained could not reach them. Pope Francis visited Papua New Guinea in September 2024, lending momentum to the canonization cause. Archbishop Rochus Tatamai of Rabaul has described To Rot's legacy as "visible in the life of the Church in Rakunai and across the nation."
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Rakunai
Shrine of Saint Peter To Rot
Rakunai
The shrine occupies part of the village where To Rot was born, lived, and whose people he served as catechist for twelve years. The chapel is modest — a simple structure in keeping with the Tolai village setting — and contains a wooden box holding his earthly remains. A finger relic was taken to Rome; a second relic remained in Rakunai. The atmosphere, according to those who have visited, is quiet. Children from the local school come to pray during breaks. Pilgrims from across Papua New Guinea, Australia, and increasingly from the wider Pacific arrive on 7 July, the feast day, though the shrine receives visitors throughout the year.
The site is reached via the road from Kokopo heading northwest along the Gazelle Peninsula coastline. No formal visitor center exists; the welcome comes from the village and the parish.
Rakunai village, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea
Rabaul WWII Tunnels
Beneath the streets of the old Rabaul township, now partially buried under the 1994 volcanic ash, runs the tunnel network the Japanese military dug between 1942 and 1945 using the labor of prisoners and conscripted locals. An accessible section on Mango Avenue has been preserved as a walk-through historical museum. The tunnels served as command posts, ammunition stores, and, in the final months of the war, hiding places for an occupying force that had already lost its supply lines.
The tunnels do not directly mark the site of To Rot's imprisonment — that location is not precisely documented — but they are the most tangible remaining evidence of the occupation under which he died. Coming here after Rakunai gives the martyrdom a material weight it otherwise risks losing to abstraction.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Feast of Saint Peter To Rot — 7 July
The feast day of Saint Peter To Rot falls on the anniversary of his martyrdom, 7 July 1945. In Rakunai, the day is marked with an outdoor Mass at the shrine, drawing pilgrims from across East New Britain Province and beyond. The celebration has grown significantly since the 2025 canonization, with parish groups arriving by bus and truck from Kokopo, Rabaul, and across East New Britain Province.
The feast is a national occasion in Papua New Guinea. Masses are celebrated simultaneously in Port Moresby, Lae, Mount Hagen, and across the dioceses. The Archdiocese of Rabaul coordinates a novena beginning 28 June. In Rakunai itself, the village receives visitors in the Tolai tradition of hospitality, with shared food and song. There is no formal accommodation at the shrine; pilgrims typically base themselves in Kokopo, approximately 25 kilometers away, and travel to the village for the feast day liturgies.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Accommodation is concentrated in Kokopo, the commercial center of East New Britain Province and the practical base for pilgrimage to Rakunai. The drive from central Kokopo to the shrine is approximately 25 to 30 minutes.
Rapopo Plantation Resort ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Set on an absolute beachfront between Kokopo and Tokua Airport, 10 minutes from the airport and overlooking the volcanic peaks above Rabaul. The resort offers 31 air-conditioned rooms, a restaurant, a swim-up bar, a dive shop, and private beach access. The resort has been recognized among TripAdvisor's top 25 South Pacific hotels. rapopo.com ∙ Reserve this hotel
Gazelle International Hotel ⭐⭐⭐ — Located in central Kokopo on the original site of the residence of Queen Emma of the South Seas, this full-service hotel offers rooms with sea or mountain views, a restaurant, pool, and complimentary airport shuttle. Walking distance from the Kokopo waterfront and the East New Britain Historical and Cultural Centre. gazelleinterhotel.com ∙ Reserve this hotel
Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort (boutique hotel) — Beachfront bungalows on Kokopo's western shore, rated 8.5 by recent guests, with sweeping views across Blanche Bay toward the Duke of York Islands. Private beach, restaurant, bar, and swimming pool. The more intimate atmosphere makes it a favored base for independent travelers. kbb.com.pg ∙ Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Air: Rakunai lies on the island of New Britain, separated from the Papua New Guinea mainland by sea. There is no road connection to the mainland; all access is by air or boat. Tokua Airport (RAB), also called Rabaul Airport, serves Kokopo and is the main entry point for East New Britain Province. Air Niugini operates daily flights from Port Moresby (approximately 1 hour 20 minutes). The airport is approximately 20 kilometers from central Kokopo by sealed road. Most hotels offer airport transfers; taxis and PMV (public motor vehicle) minibuses are available.
From Port Moresby: International visitors to Papua New Guinea arrive at Jacksons International Airport (POM) in Port Moresby, the only airport with regular international connections. Airlines serving Port Moresby include Air Niugini, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific. A domestic connecting flight to Tokua follows the same day or the next morning.
By Road: The Gazelle Peninsula road network is sealed between Kokopo and Rabaul (approximately 20 kilometers), and onward to the villages along the northeast coast. Rakunai lies northwest of Kokopo along the coastal road. PMV minibuses run from Kokopo market to villages along this route throughout the day. Private car hire through hotels or local operators is the more reliable option for shrine visits, particularly on feast days when road traffic increases significantly.
Local Transport: Kokopo is navigable on foot around the waterfront area. For Rakunai, Vunapope, and the Rabaul tunnels, transport is required. Hotel desks in Kokopo can arrange day-trip drivers familiar with pilgrimage sites. The standard practice is to hire a vehicle and driver for a full day, covering Rakunai, the Vunapope cathedral complex, and Rabaul in a single circuit of approximately 60 kilometers.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Theo Aerts. The Martyrs of Papua New Guinea: 333 Missionary Lives Lost During World War II — The definitive scholarly account of the missionary deaths across Papua New Guinea during the Japanese occupation, with detailed coverage of the circumstances in which Peter To Rot lived and died on the Gazelle Peninsula.
🎥 Recommended Videos
He Died for Marriage | Saint Peter To Rot's Story | EWTN Vaticano — EWTN News profile of Peter To Rot produced at his canonization on 19 October 2025, drawing on archival testimony and interviews with Rakunai parishioners. 5 minutes 34 seconds.
Pope approves canonisation of Peter To Rot, who will be PNG's first saint — ABC News Australia report from April 2025, including on-the-ground footage from Rakunai and interviews with the Archdiocese of Rabaul. 9 minutes 35 seconds.
🔗 Useful Links
Papua New Guinea Tourism Authority — Official national tourism website with practical travel information, accommodation listings, and entry requirements for Papua New Guinea.
Catholic Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands — National episcopal conference information including the Archdiocese of Rabaul profile.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"They are not heroes or champions of some ideal, but authentic men and women. These faithful friends of Christ are martyrs for their faith, like Bishop Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan and catechist Peter To Rot." — Pope Leo XIV, Canonization Homily, St. Peter's Square, 19 October 2025