MARTYR SAINTS OF CHINA - 9 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 9th of July

WELCOME!

MARTYR SAINTS OF CHINA

The first Christian martyrs in China appear to have been the missionaries of Ili Baliq in Central Asia, Khan-Balig (Peking), and Zaitun (Fu-Kien), in the middle of the fourteenth century. In China, the native dynasty of Ming, replacing the Mongol dynasty of Yuan, had not followed the policy of toleration of their predecessors; the Hungarian, Matthew Escandel, being possibly the first martyr.

With the revival of the missions in China with Matteo Ricci, who died at Peking in 1610, the blood of martyrs was soon shed to fertilise the evangelical field; the change of the Ming dynasty to the Manchu dynasty, giving occasion for new prosecution. 

THEY WERE KILLED BY THE MANCHU INVADERS

Andrew Xavier (better known as Andrew Wolfgang) Koffler (born at Krems, Austria, 1603), a Jesuit, and companion of Father Michel Boym, in the Kwang-Si province, who had been very successful during the Ming dynasty, was killed by the Manchu invaders on December 12, 1651. On May 9, 1665, the Dominican, Domingo Coronado, died in prison at Peking. Sometime before, a Spanish Dominican, Francisco Fernandez, of the convent of Valladolid, had been martyred on January 15, 1648. Among the martyrs must be reckoned the celebrated Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell (T’ang Jo-wang), who was imprisoned and ill-treated during the Manchu conquest. They were the first victims in modern times.

A DREADFUL PROSECUTION BROKE OUT IN 1746 

After publication by a literato, of a libel against the Christians of Fu-ngan, in Fu-Kien, the viceroy of the province gave orders to inquire into the state of the Catholic religion, the result of which was that a dreadful prosecution broke out in 1746, during the reign of Emperor K’ien lung, the victims of which were all Spanish Dominicans; the following were arrested:

Juan Alcober (born at Girone in 1649); Francisco Serrano, Bishop of Tipasa, and coadjutor the vicar Apostolic; and Francisco Diaz (born in 1712, at Ecija); finally the vicar Apostolic; Pedra Martyr Sanz (born in 1680, at Asco, Tortosa), Bishop of Mauricastra, and Joachim Royo (born at Tervel in 1690) surrendered.

A FRESH PROSECUTION BROKE OUT IN THE KIANG-NAN PROVINCE

After they had been cruelly tortured, the viceroy sentenced them to death on November 1, 1746; Sanz was martyred on May 26, 1747; his companions shared his fate; the five Dominican martyrs were beatified by Leo XIII, on May 14, 1893. Shortly after, a fresh prosecution broke out in the Kiang-Nan province, and the two Jesuit fathers, Antoine-Joseph Henriquez (born June 13, 1707), and Tristan de Attimis (born in Friuli, July 28, 1707), were thrown into prison with a great number of Christians, including young girls, who were ill-treated; finally the viceroy of Nan-King sentenced to death the two missionaries, who were strangled on September 12, 1748. In 1785, the Franciscan brother, Atto Biagini (born at Pistoia, 1752), died in prison at Peking.

THE KIA K'ING PERIOD

Persecution was very severe during the Kia K’ing period (1796-1820); Louis-Gabriel-Taurin Dufresse (born at Ville de Lezoux, Bourbonnais, 1751), of the Paris Foreign Missions, Bishop of Tabraca (July 24, 1800, and Vicar Apostolic of Sze Ch’wan, was beheaded in this province on September 14, 1815. 

IN 1819, A NEW PROSECUTION TOOK PLACE IN THE HU-PE PROVINCE

In 1819, a new prosecution took place in the Hu-Pe Province; Jean-Francois-Regis Clet (born at Grenoble, April 19, 1748), and aged Lazarist, was betrayed by a renegade, arrested in Ho-Nan, and thrown in prison at Wu Ch’ang in October 1819; he was strangled on February 18, 1820, and twenty-three Christians were, at the same time, sentenced to perpetual banishment; another Lazarist, Lamiot, who had also been arrested, being the emperor’s interpreter, was sent back to Peking; the Emperor Kia K’ing died shortly after; Father Clet was beatified in 1900.

THE REIGN OF EMPEROR TAS KWANG

Under the reign of Emperor Tas Kwang, another Lazarist was also the victim of the Mandarin of Hu-Pe; also betrayed by a Chinese renegade, Jean-Gabriel Perboyre (born at Puech, Cahors, on January 6, 1802), was transferred to Wu Ch’ang like Clet; during several months, he endured awful tortures, and was finally strangled on September 11, 1870; he was beatified on November 10, 1889. Father d’Addosio has written in Chinese, in 1887, a life of Perboyre; full bibliographical details are given of these two martyrs in "Bibliotheca Sinica".

AFTER THE FRENCH TREATY OF 1844

Just after the French treaty of 1844, stipulating free exercises of the Christian religion, the Franciscan Vicar Apostolic of Hu-Pe, Giuseppe Rizzolati, was expelled, and Michel Navarro (born at Granada, June 4, 1809, was arrested; a Lazarist missionary, Laurent Carayon was taken back from Chi-Li to Macao (June, 1846), while Huc and Gabet were compelled to leave Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, on February 26, 1846, and forcibly conducted to Canton. The death of Father August Chapdelaine, of the Paris Foreign Missions (born at La Rochelle, Diocese of Coutances, January 6, 1814, beheaded on February 29, 1856, at Si-Lin-Hien, in the Kwang-Si province), was the pretext chosen by France, to join England in a war against China; when peace was restored by a treaty signed at Tien-Tsin in June, 1858, it was stipulated by a separate article that the Si-Lin mandarin guilty of the murder of the French missionary should be degraded, and disqualified for any office in the future. 

HE WAS FINALLY MURDERED

On February 27, 1857, Jean-Victor Muller, of the Paris Foreign Missions, was arrested in Kwang-Tung; an indemnity of 200 dollars was paid to him; he was finally murdered by the rebels at Hing-Yi-Fu, on April 24, 1866. On August 16, 1860, the T’ai-p’ing rebel chief, the Chung Wang, accompanied by the Kan Wang, marched upon Shanghai; on 17th, his troops entered the village of Tsa Ka Wei, where the orphanage of the Jesuit Luigi de Massa (born at Naples, March 3, 1827) was situated; the Father was killed with a number of Christians; they were no less than five brothers belonging to the Napolitan family of Massa, all Jesuit missionaries in China: Augustin (born March 16, 1813; died August 15, 1856), Nicolas (born January 30, 1815; died June 3, 1876), Rene (born May 14, 1817; died April 27, 1853), Gaetano (born January 31, 1821; died April 28, 1850), and Luigi. Two years later, another Jesuit father, Victor Vuillaume (born December 26, 1818), was put to death on March 4, 1862, at Ts’Ien Kia, Kiangsu province, by order of the Shanghai authorities.

HE WAS MISTAKEN FOR A CHINESE CITIZEN

At the beginning of 1861, Jean-Joseph Fenouil (born November 18, 1821 at Rudelle, Cahors), later Bishop of Tenedos, and Vicar Apostolic of Yun-Nan, was captured by the Lolo people of Ta Leang Shan, and ill-treated, being mistaken for a Chinaman. On September 1, 1854, Nicolas-Michel Krick (born March 2, 1819, at Lixheim), of the Paris Foreign Missions, missionary to Tibet, was murdered, with Father Bourry, in the country of the Abors. 

On February 18, 1862, Jean-Pierre Néel (born at Sainte-Catherine-sur-Riverie, Diocese of Lyons, June, 1832), Paris Foreign Missions, was beheaded at Kaichou (Kweichou). Gabriel-Marie Piere Durand (born at Lunel, on January 31, 1835), of the same order, missionary to Tibet, in trying to escape his prosecutors, fell into the Salwein river and was drowned on September 28, 1865.

On August 29, 1865, Francois Mabileau (born March 1, 1829, at Paimboeuf), of the Paris Foreign Missions, was murdered at Yew Yang Chou, in Eastern Sze Chw’an; four years later, Jean-Francois Rigaud (born at Arc-et-Senans) was killed on January 2, 1869, at the same place. Redress was obtained for these crimes by the French Legation at Peking. In Kwang-Tung, Fathers Verchere (1867), Dejean (1868), Delavay (1869), were prosecuted; Gilles and Lebrun were ill-treated (1869-1870). 

THINGS CAME TO A CLIMAX IN 1870

Things came to a climax in June, 1870: rumours had been afloat that children had been kidnapped by the missionaries and the sisters at T’Ien-Tsin; the che-fu, instead of calming the people, was exciting them by posting bills hostile to foreigners; the infuriated mob rose on June 20, 1870: the French consul, Fontainer, and his chancellor Simon, were murdered at the Yamun of the imperial commissioner, Ch’ung Hou; the church of the Lazarists was pillaged and burnt down: Father Chevrier was killed with a Cantonese priest, Vincent Hu, the French interpreter, Thomassin and his wife, a French merchant, Challemaison and his wife; inside the native town, ten sisters of Saint Vincent of Paul were put to death in the most cruel manner, while on the other side of the river, the Russian merchants, Bassof and Protopopoff with his wife, were also murdered.

THROUGHOUT CHINA THERE WAS AN OUTCRY FROM ALL THE FOREIGN COMMUNITIES

Throughout China there was an outcry from all the foreign communities. It may be said that this awful crime were never punished; France was involved in her gigantic struggle with Germany, and she had to be content with the punishment of the supposed murderers, and with the apology brought to St-Germain by the special embassy of Ch’ung hou, who at one time had been looked upon as one of the instigators of the massacre. Jean Hue (born January 21, 1837), was massacred with a Chinese priest on September 5, 1873, at Kien-Kiang in Sze Chw’an; another priest of the Paris Foreign Missions, Jean-Joseph-Marie Baptifaud (born June 1, 1845), was murdered at Pienkio, in the Yun-Nan province during the night of 16-17 September 1874. The secretary of the French legation, Guilaume de Roquette, was sent to Sze Ch’wan, and after some protracted negotiations, arranged that two murderers should be executed, and indemnity paid and some mandarins punished (1875).

THE KOREAN MASSACRES OF 1839 AND 1866

[During] the Korean massacres of 1839, and 1866; on May 14, 1879, Victor Marie Deguette, of the Paris Foreign Missions, was arrested in the district of Kung-tjyou, and taken to Seoul; he was released at the request of the French minister at Peking; during the preceding year the Vicar Apostolic of Korea, Mgr Ridel, one of the survivors of the massacre of 1866, had been arrested and sent back to China. On Sunday, 29 July 1894, Father Jean-Moise Jozeau (born February 9, 1866), was murdered in Korea. There priests of the Paris Foreign Missions were the next victims: Jean-Baptiste-Honore Brieux was murdered near Ba-t’ang, on September 8, 1881; in April 1882, Eugene Charles Brugnon was imprisoned; Jean-Antoine Louis Terrasse (born at Lantriac, Haute-Loire) was murdered with seven Christians at Chang In-Yun’nan province, during the night of 27-28 March 1883; the culprits were flogged and banished, and an indemnity of 50,000 talers was paid. Some time before, Louis-Dominique Conraux, of the same order (born 1852) was arrested and tortured in Manchuria at Hou Lan. On November 1, 1897, at eleven o’clock in the evening, a troop of men belonging to the Ta Tao Hwei, the great "Knife Association", an anti-foreign secret society, attacked the German mission (priest of Steyl), in the village of Chang Kia-Chwang (Chao-chou prefecture), where Fathers Francis-Xavier Nies (born June 11, 1859, at Recklinghausen), Richard Henle (born July 21, 1863, at Stetten, near Kaigerloch, Sigmaringen), and Stenz were asleep; the latter escaped, but the other two were killed. This double murder led to the occupation of Kiao-Chou, on November 14, 1897, by the German fleet: the Governor of Shan-Tung, Li Peng-heng was replaced by the no less notorious Yu Hien. On April 21, 1898, Mathieu Bertholet (born at Charbonnier, Puy de Dome, June 12, 1865), was murdered in the Kwang-Si province at Tong-Kiang Chou; he belonged to the Paris Foreign Missions.

JULY 1889

In July, 1898, two French missionaries were arrested at Yung Chang in Sza-Ch’wan, by the bandit Yu Man-tze already sentenced to death in January 1892, at the request of the French legation; one of the missionaries escaped wounded; but the other, Fleury (born 1869), was set at liberty only on January 7, 1899. On October 14, 1898, Henri Chanes (born September 22, 1865, at Coubon-sur-Loire), of the Paris Foreign Missions, was murdered at Pak-Tung (Kwang-Tung), with several native Christians; the Chinese had to pay 80,000 dollars. In the same year, on December 6, the Belgian Franciscan, Jean Delbrouck (Brother Victorin, born at Boirs, May 14, 1870), was arrested and beheaded on December 11, his body being cut to pieces; by an agreement signed on December 12, 1899, by the French consul at Hankou, 10,000 talers were paid for the murder, and 44,500 tales for the destruction of churches, buildings, etc. in the prefectures of I-Ch’ang and Sha-Nan. 

THE MOST APPALLING DISASTER BEFELL THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN 1900 DURING THE BOXER REBELLION

The most appalling disaster befell the Christian Church in 1900 during the Boxer rebellion: at Peking, the Lazarist, Jules Garrigues (born June 23, 1840), was burnt with his church, the Tung-Tang; Dore (born at Paris, May 15, 1862) was murdered, and his church the Si Tang, destroyed; two Marist brethren were killed at Sha-La-Eul; Father d’Addosio (born at Brescia, December 19, 1835), who left the French legation to look after the foreign troops who had entered Peking, was caught by the Boxers, and put to death; another priest, Chavanne (born at Saint Chamond, August 20, 1862), wounded by a shot during the siege, died of smallpox on July 26.

IN THE CHI-LI PROVINCE

In the Chi-Li province, the following Jesuits suffered for their faith: Modeste Andlauer (born at Rosheim, Alsace, 1847); Remis Isore (born January 22, 1852, at Bambecque, Nord); Paul Denn (born April 1, 1847, at Lille); Ignace Mangin (born July 30, 1857, at Verny, Lorraine). In the Hu-Nan province, the Franciscan: Antonio Fantosati, Vicar Apostolic and Bishop of Adra (born October 16, 1842, at Sta. Maria in Valle, Trevi); Cesada; and Joseph: in the Hu-Pe province, the Franciscan Ebert; in the Shan-Si province, where the notorious Yu hien, subsequently beheaded, ordered a wholesale massacre of missionaries both Catholic and Protestant, at T’ai Yuan: Gregorio Grassi (born at Castellazzo, December 13, 1833, vicar apostolic; his coadjutor, Francisco Fogolla (born at Motereggio, October 4, 1839), Bishop of Bagi; Fathers Facchini, Saccani, Theodoric Balat, Egide, and Brother Andrew Bauer, all Franciscans. 

IN MANCHURIA

In Manchuria: Laurent Guillon (born November 8, 1854, at Chindrieux, burnt at Mukden, July 3, 1900), Vicar Apostolic and Bishop of Eumenia; Noel-Marie Emonet (born at Massingy, canton of Rumilly, burnt at Mukden, July 2, 1900); Jean-Marie Viaud (born June 5, 1864; murdered July 11, 1900); Edouard Agnius (born at Haubourdin, Nord, September 27, 1874; murdered  July 11, 1900); Jules-Joseph Bayart (born March 31, 1877; murdered July 11, 1900); Louis-Marie-Joseph Bourgeois (born December 21, 1863, at La Chapelle-des-Bois, Doubs; murdered July 15, 1900); Louis Marie Leray (born at Ligne, October 8, 1872; murdered July 16, 1900); Auguste Le Guevel (born at Vannes, March 21, 1875; murdered, July 15, 1900); François Georjon (born at Marlhes, Loire, August 3, 1869; murdered July 20, 1900); Jean-Francois Regis Souvignet (born October 22, 1854, at Monistrol-sur-Loire; murdered July 30, 1900), all priests of the Paris Foreign Missions.

The Belgian Missions (Congregation of Scheut), numbered also many martyrs: Ferdinant Hamer (born at Nimegue, Holland, August 21, 1840; burnt to death in Kan-Su), the first Vicar Apostolic of the province; in Mongolia: Joseph Segers (born at Saint Nicolas, Waes, October 20, 1869); Herman; Mallet; Jaspers; Zylmans; Abbeloos, Dobbe. 

CEMETERIES WERE DESECRATED

The cemeteries, at Peking especially, were desecrated, the graves opened and, the remains scattered abroad. Seven cemeteries (one British, five French, and one mission), situated in the neighbourhood of Peking had been desecrated. By Article IV of the Protocol signed at Peking, September 7, 1901, it was stipulated: "The Chinese government has agreed to erect an expiatory monument in each of the foreign or international cemeteries, which were desecrated, and in which the tombs were destroyed. It has been agreed with the Representatives of the Powers, that the Legations interested shall settle the details for the erection of these monuments, China bearing all the expenses thereof, estimated at ten thousand talers for the cemeteries at Peking and in its neighbourhood, and at five thousand taels for the cemeteries in the provinces." The amounts have been paid.

Notwithstanding these negotiations, Hippolyte Julien (born July 16, 1874) of the Paris Foreign Missions was murdered on January 16, 1902, at Ma-Tze-Hao, in the Kwang Tung province.

A MASSACRE OF SEVERAL MISSIONARIES OF THE PARIS FOREIGN MISSIONS TOOK PLACE

In 1904, Monsignor Theotime Verhaegen, Franciscan Vicar Apostolic of Southern Hu-Pe (born 1867), was killed with his brother, at Li-Shwan. A new massacre of several missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions including Father Jean-Andre Soulie (born 1858), took place in 1905 in the Mission of Tibet (western part of the province of Sze-Chw’an). Finally we shall record the death of the Marist Brother, Louis Maurice, murdered at Nan ch’ang on February 25, 1906.

A long and sad list, to which might be added the names of many others, whose sufferings for the Faith of Christ have not been recorded. 

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913