Today, January 12, is the memorial of Blessed Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung.
Nicholas was born in 1895 in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. His parents were converts to the Catholic faith.
He was ordained priest in 1926 and first served as assistant parish priest. Two years later, he taught Salesians missionary priests how to speak the Thai language.
In 1930, Nicholas was sent to Northern Vietnam to do missions. He worked to bring back Catholics who had fallen from their practice due to poverty and carried out his ministry under the shadow of an anti-Christian Thai government.
On January 12, 1941, Nicholas rang the church bell to call people to Sunday Mass. For doing this, he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. While in prison, he catechized his fellow prisoners, baptizing 68 of them. He found his consolation in reciting the rosary.
He soon contracted tuberculosis in prison, and was then left to die in a hospital. He was denied medical care because he was a Catholic.
He died in 1944. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in Rome in 2000.