The holy martyrs Augustine Zhao Rong, priest, Peter Sans i Jordá, bishop, and their companions, who at various times and in various places throughout China strenuously bore witness to the Gospel of Christ in word and deed, and who, on account of their preaching or confession of the faith, became victims of persecution and were crowned at the glorious banquet of heaven.
Among them are numbered the holy bishops Louis Versiglia, Antoninus Fantosati, Francis Fogolla, Gabriel-Taurin Dufresse, and Gregory Grassi; the priests Caesidius Giacomantonio, Elias Facchini, John of Triora (Francis Mary) Lantrua, Joseph Mary Gambaro, and Theodoric Balat, of the Order of Friars Minor; Francis Díaz del Rincón, Francis Fernández de Capillas, Francis Serrano, Joachim Royo, and John Alcober, of the Order of Preachers; Leo Ignatius Mangin, Modestus Andlauer, Paul Denn, and Remigius Isoré, of the Society of Jesus; Alberic Crescitelli, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions; Augustine Chapdelaine and John Peter Néel, of the Paris Society for Foreign Missions; Callistus Caravario, of the Salesian Society; Francis Régis Clet, of the Congregation of the Mission; Paul Liu Hanzuo and Thaddeus Liu Ruiting; together with the virgins of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary — Mary of Peace (Maria Anna) Giuliani, Mary of Saint Natalia (Jeanne Marie) Kerguin, Mary of Saint Justus (Anne Françoise) Moreau, Mary Adolphine (Anna Dierk), Mary Amandina (Pauline) Jeuris, Mary Clara (Clelia) Nanetti, and Mary Hermina of Jesus (Irma) Grivot — and a great multitude of priests, seminarians, religious, catechists, and lay faithful, both foreign missionaries and native Chinese.
Lifespan: 1648–1930
Canonized: 1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II, St. Peter’s Square, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 9 July
“Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will repeat to you that I am a Christian.”
From the most remote origins of the Chinese people (around the middle of the third millennium before Christ), the religious sense toward the Supreme Being and filial devotion toward deceased ancestors have been the most distinctive characteristics of that civilization’s millennia-long culture.
This note of marked religiosity is found, to varying degrees, among Chinese people of every century down to our own, when under the influence of Western atheism certain intellectuals—especially those educated abroad—sought to rid themselves, as some of their Western mentors had done, of every religious idea.
In the fifth century the Gospel was proclaimed in China, and at the beginning of the seventh a first church was erected there. During the T’ang dynasty (618–907) the Christian community flourished for two centuries. In the thirteenth century, the understanding that a missionary such as John of Montecorvino showed for the Chinese people and their cultures made it possible to launch the first Catholic mission in the “Middle Kingdom,” with an episcopal see at Beijing.
It is no surprise that especially in the modern era—that is, from the sixteenth century onward, when communications between East and West began to be somewhat more frequent—the Catholic Church felt an urgent desire to bring the light of the Gospel to this people, so that it might enrich still further the treasury of cultural and religious traditions already so rich and so profound.
Beginning in the last decades of the sixteenth century, various Catholic missionaries were sent to China. Persons such as Matteo Ricci and others had been chosen with great care, taking account not only of their spirit of faith and charity but also of their cultural attainments and their qualifications in various fields of science, especially astronomy and mathematics. It was indeed thanks to these missionaries, and to the appreciation they demonstrated for the remarkable spirit of inquiry present among Chinese scholars, that highly fruitful relationships of scientific collaboration could be established. These in turn served to open many doors—even those of the imperial court—and thereby to cultivate very profitable relationships with many persons of great ability.
The quality of the religious life of these missionaries was what led not a few persons of high standing to feel the need to know better the evangelical spirit that animated them, and therefore to be instructed in the Christian religion—which was done in a manner befitting their cultural characteristics and their way of thinking. By the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, there were many who, having received the proper preparation, asked for baptism and became fervent Christians, always maintaining with just pride their identity as Chinese and their culture.
Christianity was seen in that period as a reality that did not oppose the highest values of Chinese tradition, nor overlay itself upon them, but enriched them with a new light and dimension.
Thanks to the excellent relations that existed between certain missionaries and the Emperor K’ang Hsi himself, and thanks to their services in restoring peace between the Tsar of Russia and the “Son of Heaven,” the Emperor issued in 1692 the first decree of religious freedom, by virtue of which all his subjects could follow the Christian religion and all missionaries could preach it throughout his vast domains.
As a result, missionary activity and the spread of the evangelical message developed considerably, and many Chinese people, drawn by the light of Christ, asked to receive baptism.
Unfortunately, however, the painful question of the “Chinese Rites” angered the Emperor K’ang Hsi and prepared the ground for persecution—strongly influenced by that of neighboring Japan—which, to varying degrees, openly or covertly, violently or with concealment, spread in successive waves from the first decade of the seventeenth century to around the middle of the nineteenth century, killing missionaries and lay faithful and destroying not a few churches.
It was on 15 January 1648 that the Manchu Tartars, having invaded the Fujian region and proving hostile to the Christian religion, killed Blessed Francis Fernández de Capillas, a priest of the Order of Friars Preachers. After imprisoning and torturing him, they beheaded him while he and others were reciting the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary.
Blessed Francis Fernández de Capillas has been recognized by the Holy See as the Protomartyr of China.
Toward the middle of the following century, the eighteenth, five other Spanish missionaries who had carried out their activity between 1715 and 1747 were likewise killed as a consequence of a new wave of persecution that began in 1729, with renewed severity in 1746. This was the era of the emperors Yung-Cheng and his son K’ien-Lung.
Blessed Peter Sans i Jordà, O.P., Bishop, was killed at Fuzhou in 1747. Blessed Francis Serrano, O.P., Priest; Blessed Joachim Royo, O.P., Priest; Blessed John Alcober, O.P., Priest; and Blessed Francis Díaz, O.P., Priest, were all four killed on 28 October 1748.
A new phase of persecutory rule against the Christian religion came about in the nineteenth century.
Whereas Catholicism had been authorized by certain emperors of preceding centuries, the Emperor Kia-Kin (1796–1821) issued instead numerous and severe decrees against it. The first dates from 1805; two edicts of 1811 were directed against those Chinese who were studying to receive holy orders and against the priests propagating the Christian religion. A decree of 1813 exempted voluntary apostates—that is, Christians who spontaneously declared they were abandoning the Christian faith—from all punishment, while striking all others.
During this period, Blessed Peter Wu, a Chinese lay catechist, suffered martyrdom. Born into a pagan family, he received baptism in 1796 and spent the rest of his life proclaiming the truth of the Christian religion. All attempts to make him apostatize were in vain. When the death sentence was pronounced against him, he was strangled on 7 November 1814.
Following him in fidelity to Christ was Blessed Joseph Zhang Dapeng, a Chinese lay catechist and merchant, baptized in 1800 and thereafter the animating soul of the mission in the city of Kouy-Yang. Imprisoned, he died by strangulation on 12 March 1815.
In that same year (1815) two further decrees were issued approving the conduct of the Viceroy of Sichuan, who had beheaded Mgr. Dufresse of the Paris Foreign Missions and several Chinese Christians. This led to an intensification of the persecution.
The following martyrs belong to that period:
Blessed John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse, M.E.P., Bishop, arrested on 18 May 1815, taken to Chengdu, condemned, and executed on 14 September 1815.
Blessed Augustine Zhao Rong, a Chinese diocesan priest who, while serving as one of the soldiers escorting Mgr. Dufresse from Chengdu to Beijing, had been moved by the latter’s patient endurance and had therefore asked to be numbered among the neophytes. Once baptized, he was sent to the Seminary and then ordained a priest. Arrested, he suffered the most cruel torments and died in 1815.
Blessed John of Triora, O.F.M., Priest, imprisoned together with others in the summer of 1815, subsequently condemned to death and killed by strangulation on 7 February 1816.
Blessed Joseph Yuan, a Chinese diocesan priest who, having heard Mgr. Dufresse speak of the Christian faith, was captivated by its beauty and thus became an exemplary neophyte. Later ordained a priest and as such devoted to evangelization in various districts, he was arrested in August 1816, condemned to strangulation, and executed on 24 June 1817.
Blessed Francis Regis Clet of the Congregation of the Mission, who, after obtaining permission to go to the China missions, set sail for the East in 1791. Having arrived, he spent thirty years living a life of sacrifice as a missionary, sustained by unflagging zeal, evangelizing three immense provinces of the Chinese Empire: Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan. Betrayed by a Christian, he was arrested and thrown into prison, where he endured atrocious torments. By sentence of the Emperor he was killed by strangulation on 17 February 1820.
Blessed Thaddeus Liu, a Chinese diocesan priest, refused to apostatize, saying that he was a priest and wished to remain faithful to the religion he had preached. Condemned to death, he was strangled on 30 November 1823.
Blessed Peter Liu, a Chinese lay catechist, was arrested in 1814 and condemned to exile in Tartary, where he remained for nearly twenty years. Returning to his homeland, he was arrested again and strangled on 17 May 1834.
Blessed Joachim Ho, a Chinese lay catechist, was baptized at around the age of twenty. In the great persecution of 1814 he had been seized with many other faithful and subjected to cruel tortures. Sent into exile in Tartary, he remained there for nearly twenty years; returning to his homeland, he was arrested again and refused to apostatize. When the Emperor confirmed the death sentence, he was strangled on 9 July 1839.
Blessed Augustus Chapdelaine, M.E.P., a priest of the Diocese of Coutances, entered the Seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions and set sail for China in 1852, arriving in Guangxi at the end of 1854. Arrested in 1856, tortured, and condemned to die in a cage, he breathed his last in February 1856.
Blessed Lawrence Bai Xiaoman, a Chinese layman and humble workman, accompanied Blessed Chapdelaine to the refuge that had been offered to the missionary and was arrested with him and brought before the tribunal. Nothing could make him apostatize. He was beheaded on 25 February 1856.
Blessed Agnes Cao Guiying, a widow born of an ancient Christian family, had devoted herself to the instruction of the young women recently converted by Blessed Chapdelaine. Arrested and condemned to die in a cage, she was executed on 1 March 1856.
On 28 January 1858, by order of the mandarin of MaoKou (in the province of Guizhou), three catechists were killed, known as the Martyrs of MaoKou: Blessed Jerome Lu Tingmei, Blessed Lawrence Wang Bing, and Blessed Agatha Lin Zhao. All three had been called upon to renounce the Christian religion, and having refused they were condemned to beheading.
On 29 July 1861, two seminarians and two lay people suffered martyrdom together—one a farmer, the other a widow who served as cook at the seminary. They are known as the Martyrs of Qingyanzhen (Guizhou): Blessed Joseph Zhang Wenlan, seminarian; Blessed Paul Chen Changpin, seminarian; Blessed John Baptist Luo Tingying, layman; and Blessed Martha Wang Luo Mande, laywoman.
In the following year, on 18 and 19 February 1862, five other persons gave their lives for Christ, known as the Martyrs of Guizhou: Blessed John Peter Néel, Priest of the Paris Foreign Missions; Blessed Martin Wu Xuesheng, lay catechist; Blessed John Zhang Tianshen, lay catechist; Blessed John Chen Xianheng, lay catechist; and Blessed Lucia Yi Zhenmei, lay catechist.
In the meantime, certain political events had occurred that had significant repercussions on the life of the Christian missions.
In June 1840 the Imperial Commissioner of Guangdong, rightly seeking to suppress the opium trade in the hands of the English, had ordered more than 20,000 chests of this drug thrown into the sea. This served as the pretext for an immediate war, which the English won. When it ended, China was forced in 1842 to sign the first international treaty of modern times, soon followed by others with America and France. Seizing the opportunity, France replaced Portugal as the protecting power of the missions, and consequently a twofold decree was issued: one in 1844 permitting Chinese people to follow the Catholic religion, and another in 1846 abolishing the ancient penalties against Catholics.
The Church could from then on live openly and carry out its missionary activity, developing it also in the field of higher education, university life, and scientific research.
With the multiplication of various high-level cultural institutes and thanks to their well-appreciated activity, there gradually developed ever deeper bonds between the Church and China with its rich cultural traditions. This collaboration with the Chinese authorities increasingly favored mutual appreciation and the sharing of those true values that must govern every civil society.
Thus a century of expansion of the Christian missions passed—save for the period in which they were struck by the calamity of the insurrection of the “Society of Righteousness and Harmony” (commonly known as the Boxers), which occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century and caused the shedding of the blood of many Christians.
It is well known that into this uprising converged all the secret societies and the hatred—accumulated and suppressed—against foreigners over the last decades of the nineteenth century, as a result of the political and social upheavals following the “Opium War” and the imposition of the so-called “Unequal Treaties” by the Western Powers.
The motive for the persecution of the missionaries, however—even those of European nationality—was quite different. Their slaughter was determined by a purely religious cause: they were killed for the same reason as the Chinese faithful who had become Christians. Incontestable historical documents bring to light the anti-Christian hatred that drove the Boxers to massacre the missionaries and the local faithful who had embraced their doctrine. Against the latter an edict was issued on 1 July 1900, stating in substance that the time of good relations with the European missionaries and their Christians was past: the former were to be immediately repatriated, and the faithful compelled to apostatize, on pain of death.
As a result, there occurred the martyrdom of several missionaries and many Chinese people, grouped as follows:
a) Martyrs of Shanxi, killed on 9 July 1900, Friars Minor Franciscans:
Blessed Gregory Grassi, Bishop;
Blessed Francis Fogolla, Bishop;
Blessed Elias Facchini, Priest;
Blessed Theodore Balat, Priest;
Blessed Andrew Bauer, Religious Brother.
b) Martyrs of Southern Hunan, killed on 7 July 1900, likewise Friars Minor Franciscans:
Blessed Antoninus Fantosati, Bishop;
Blessed Joseph Mary Gambaro, Priest;
Blessed Caesidius Giacomantonio, Priest (4 July).
To the Franciscan martyrs of the First Order are added seven Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, of whom three were French, two Italian, one Belgian, and one Dutch:
Blessed Mary Hermelina of Jesus (born Irma Grivot);
Blessed Mary of Peace (born Maria Anna Giuliani);
Blessed Mary Clare (born Clelia Nanetti);
Blessed Mary of Saint Natalia (born Jeanne-Marie Kerguin);
Blessed Mary of Saint Just (born Anne Moreau);
Blessed Mary Adolphina (born Anna Dierk);
Blessed Mary Amandina (born Paola Jeuris).
Among the Chinese martyrs of the Franciscan family are also eleven Third Order Franciscans, all Chinese:
Blessed John Zhang Huan, seminarian;
Blessed Patrick Dong Bodi, seminarian;
Blessed John Wang Rui, seminarian;
Blessed Philip Zhang Zhihe, seminarian;
Blessed John Zhang Jingguang, seminarian;
Blessed Thomas Shen Jihe, lay domestic;
Blessed Simon Qin Cunfu, lay catechist;
Blessed Peter Wu Anbang, layman;
Blessed Francis Zhang Rong, lay farmer;
Blessed Matthias Feng De, lay neophyte;
Blessed Peter Zhang Banniu, lay worker.
To these are added several Chinese lay faithful:
Blessed James Yan Guodong, farmer;
Blessed James Zhao Quanxin, domestic;
Blessed Peter Wang Erman, cook.
When the Boxer uprising, having begun in Shandong and spread to Shanxi and Hunan, reached also Southern Eastern Zhili—then the Apostolic Vicariate of Xianxian, entrusted to the Jesuits—the number of Christians killed ran into the thousands.
Among these were four French Jesuit missionaries and no fewer than fifty-two Chinese lay Christians—men, women, and children—the oldest of whom was seventy-nine years of age, while the two youngest were only nine. All suffered martyrdom in the month of July 1900; many of them were killed in the village church of Zhu Jiajiao, where they had taken refuge and were at prayer together with the first two of the missionaries listed below:
Blessed Leo Mangin, S.J., Priest;
Blessed Paul Denn, S.J., Priest;
Blessed Remigius Isoré, S.J., Priest;
Blessed Modestus Andlauer, S.J., Priest.
The names and ages of the Chinese lay Christians are as follows:
Blessed Mary Zhu née Wu, about 50 years old;
Blessed Peter Zhu Rixin, 19 years old;
Blessed John Baptist Zhu Wurui, 17 years old;
Blessed Mary Fu Guilin, 37 years old;
Blessed Barbara Cui née Lian, 51 years old;
Blessed Joseph Ma Taishun, 60 years old;
Blessed Lucia Wang Cheng, 18 years old;
Blessed Mary Fan Kun, 16 years old;
Blessed Mary Chi Yu, 15 years old;
Blessed Mary Zheng Xu, 11 years old;
Blessed Mary Du née Zhao, 51 years old;
Blessed Magdalene Du Fengju, 19 years old;
Blessed Mary Du née Tian, 42 years old;
Blessed Paul Wu Anjyu, 62 years old;
Blessed John Baptist Wu Mantang, 17 years old;
Blessed Paul Wu Wanshu, 16 years old;
Blessed Raymond Li Quanzhen, 59 years old;
Blessed Peter Li Quanhui, 63 years old;
Blessed Peter Zhao Mingzhen, 61 years old;
Blessed John Baptist Zhao Mingxi, 56 years old;
Blessed Teresa Chen Tinjieh, 25 years old;
Blessed Rosa Chen Aijieh, 22 years old;
Blessed Peter Wang Zuolung, 58 years old;
Blessed Mary Guo née Li, 65 years old;
Blessed John Wu Wenyin, 50 years old;
Blessed Zhang Huailu, 57 years old;
Blessed Mark Ki T’ien-Siang, 66 years old;
Blessed Anna An née Xin, 72 years old;
Blessed Mary An née Guo, 64 years old;
Blessed Anna An née Jiao, 26 years old;
Blessed Mary An Linghua, 29 years old;
Blessed Paul Liu Jinde, 79 years old;
Blessed Joseph Wang Kuiju, 37 years old;
Blessed John Wang Kuixin, 25 years old;
Blessed Teresa Zhang née He, 36 years old;
Blessed Lang née Yang, 29 years old;
Blessed Paul Lang Fu, 9 years old;
Blessed Elizabeth Qin née Bian, 54 years old;
Blessed Simon Qin Cunfu, 14 years old;
Blessed Peter Liu Zeyu, 57 years old;
Blessed Anna Wang, 14 years old;
Blessed Joseph Wang Yumei, 68 years old;
Blessed Lucia Wang née Wang, 31 years old;
Blessed Andrew Wang Tianqing, 9 years old;
Blessed Mary Wang née Li, 49 years old;
Blessed Chi Zhuze, 18 years old;
Blessed Mary Zhao née Guo, 60 years old;
Blessed Rosa Zhao, 22 years old;
Blessed Mary Zhao, 17 years old;
Blessed Joseph Yuan Gengyin, 47 years old;
Blessed Paul Ge Tingzhu, 61 years old;
Blessed Rosa Fan Hui, 45 years old.
The fact that this considerable number of Chinese lay faithful offered their lives to Christ together with the missionaries who had proclaimed the Gospel to them and had devoted themselves to their service makes manifest the depth of the bonds that faith in Christ establishes, uniting into a single family persons of different races and cultures, closely bound to one another not for political reasons but by virtue of a religion that preaches love, brotherhood, peace, and justice.
In addition to all those killed by the Boxers mentioned thus far, there must also be remembered Blessed Alberic Crescitelli, a priest of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions of Milan, who carried out his ministry in Southern Shanxi and was martyred on 21 July 1900.
Years later, several members of the Salesian Society of Saint John Bosco joined the already large company of the martyrs recalled above: Blessed Louis Versiglia, Bishop, and Blessed Callistus Caravario, Priest. They were killed together on 25 February 1930 at Li-Thau-Tseul.
Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese diocesan priest who, while serving as one of the soldiers escorting Mgr. Dufresse from Chengdu to Beijing, had been moved by the latter’s patient endurance and had therefore asked to be numbered among the neophytes. Once baptized, he was sent to the Seminary and then ordained a priest. Arrested, he suffered the most cruel torments and died in 1815.