Saint Pedro Almató (Bình)

Pedro Almató was born in 1830 in Spain. He was slight of build and not in good health. Many doubted he could endure the hard life of a mission in a distant land.

Even so, in 1847 he entered the Dominican Order. In 1853 he was ordained a priest in the Philippines. In 1855 he arrived at Bùi Chu and took the Vietnamese name Bình.

He was put in charge of the Thiết Nham area. He learned Vietnamese and visited the parishes. But those were years of harsh persecution under Emperor Tự Đức. To avoid the soldiers, he had to live for months in pits dug beneath the ground.

Just imagine: a man already frail, living in darkness, damp and cramped, without sunlight. His health grew more and more worrying.

The bishop decided to send him to China, where it was safer. But the boat had to leave early for fear of being discovered. He missed it.

He stayed, and went on serving the Hải Dương area. Perhaps it was no accident. Perhaps God wanted him to stay with the Vietnamese he had come to love.

In his letters home, he told of the months living underground. And he wrote to his parents:

“If you hear that I have been arrested, please do not weep, but rejoice that I have been granted such a blessing.”

He had prepared his parents long before it happened.

In August 1861, Father Bình was hiding in a sugarcane field, waiting to meet Bishop Valentín Berrio-Ochoa (Vinh). A man he had once taken in and helped secretly informed the mandarin to collect a reward.

He and Bishop Vinh were arrested and taken to Hải Dương.

In times of persecution, missionaries had to depend on other people’s kindness. And that very dependence made them most vulnerable to betrayal.

On November 1, 1861, the feast of All Saints, Father Pedro Almató (Bình) was beheaded at the Năm Mẫu execution ground, together with two bishops: Bishop Valentín Berrio-Ochoa (Vinh) and Bishop Jerónimo Hermosilla (Liêm). He was thirty-one.

His body was first buried at the execution ground, and later taken to a church of the Dominican Sisters.

He was beatified on May 20, 1906, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is November 1.

Father Bình had a frail body. But he endured what many strong people could not: months underground, a missed boat, a betrayal, and finally the sword.

And he died on the very feast of All Saints, as a gentle reminder that saints are not people born strong. Saints are weak people who have let God make them strong.