1814 - Peter Wu Guosheng

November 7, 1814

Guiyang, Guizhou

Peter Wu Guosheng. [CRBC]

Wu Gongsheng was born in 1768 at Longping in Guizhou, the southern Chinese province often referred to as the poorest in China.

Wu grew up with no knowledge of the name of Jesus. He was a hard worker, and saved enough money to open a large hotel, through which weary travellers from faraway places regularly passed. One day two Catholics named Xu and Leng stayed at the hotel. They had been sent from Sichuan Province to establish the work in Longping. The Christian men saw that Wu had a warm and outgoing personality with an influential personality, and one night when a full moon was in the sky they led Wu to a relationship with the Creator of the universe, using the stars and moon to illustrate their message. Wu, like Peter in the Bible, enthusiastically followed after Christ straight away. He destroyed all the idols in his house and compelled the guests staying in his hotel to accept Jesus Christ. One source says of Wu Guosheng:

“He was a man of such fiery temper that the missionary to whom the catechist brought him wondered if he ought to baptize one who seemed still so lacking in self-control. But his fire had become the flame of zeal, and when he came with 128 of his relatives and friends, whom he had instructed before he was himself baptized, no missionary could hesitate.”[1]

In 1795 Wu was baptized and given the new name Peter. He travelled to Sichuan Province, where the church was thriving and there was a growing Christian community. Wu resolved to be a true disciple of Christ and to do whatever was necessary to see God’s kingdom established in his home area, even if it meant hardship and persecution to himself. Through the power of prayer and his bold witness the number of believers in Longping grew to more than 600 by 1811.

Just when a major breakthrough seemed imminent, a widespread persecution broke out in 1814. On April 3rd of that year Wu was imprisoned and tortured in an attempt to break his spirit and cause him to denounce Christ, but he endured the cruel punishments and remained firm in his faith. Wu wrote a letter to his anguished wife from prison, exhorting her to “Be loyal to the Lord and accept His will.”

In prison Peter Wu Guosheng was a great example to the other inmates. He was full of the joy of the Lord and constantly led them in songs of praise. This infuriated the guards, who one day brought a crucifix into the cell and ordered Wu to stand on it. He refused and was condemned to death. His last words before being executed on November 7, 1814, were “Heaven, heaven, my true home!”[2]

1. Thomas F. Ryan, China Through Catholic Eyes (Boston: Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 1942), 108.
2. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 3.