From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
July 11, 2026 (#114)
Martyrs of the Church in China
On October 1, in Rome, during the year of the Great Jubilee (2000), Pope St. John Paul II canonized 120 martyrs of the Church in China. These great witnesses of the Faith died between 1648 and 1930. They included 87 native Chinese, ranging in age from 9 years old to 72. The 33 foreign born martyrs included bishops, priests, and religious men and women. During this nearly 300-year period, many thousands of other native Christians and missionaries, whose names are largely lost to history, were also killed in hatred of the Faith. But these 120 men, women, and children are now commemorated with a feast day, July 9, under the title of the Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions, Martyrs.
St. Augustine Zhao Rong (1746-1815) was the first native diocesan priest in China to be martyred. He had been a soldier who was converted at the age of 30 by the example of a French missionary bishop, Gabriel-Taurin Dufresse (1750-1815), whom he guarded as a prisoner, and who was later canonized together with him.
Less than 100 years later, tens of thousands died during the “Boxer Rebellion,” an anti-foreign popular uprising (1899-1901). Among the martyrs at that time were seven religious women, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, often remembered as the “Martyrs of Shanxi,” of whom three were French, two Italian, one Belgian, and one Dutch. They were serving the poor of the region and refused to leave their mission when violence was breaking out, even though they had been encouraged to do so by their bishop. They were all subsequently murdered, together with many Chinese Christians.
The Chinese government objected vehemently to the canonization of these martyrs. They condemned the proceedings as an insult to the Chinese people, accusing the martyrs as having been agents of Western imperialism and “for bullying the Chinese people.” The Communist state was especially offended by the fact that the canonization ceremony took place on the same date (Oct. 1) as the 51st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Holy See denied any political motivation in the choice of date or in the decision to canonize these faithful and heroic witnesses.
It might be assumed that there have been many, many more Catholic martyrs in China since 1930, but current circumstances (i.e., persecution of the Church) would make the usual canonical investigations impossible.
