Chinese Martyrs
According to tradition, the first to bring the good news of the Son of God to China were the so-called Thomists, Christians from India, where the Apostle Thomas preached. But the Thomists' preaching was not successful. Somewhat more successful, though not by much, were the Nestorians—heretics who, as exiles from the Byzantine Empire, traveled far to the East and reached the Chinese Kingdom.
The Roman Catholic Church later sent some of its missionaries to China, including the Jesuits. Their most famous missionary was Xavier. But the Jesuits' internecine strife provoked the Chinese, who killed some and expelled others. After the Roman missionaries, Protestant missionaries from England and America came to China. Finally, an Orthodox mission appeared – a Russian one. The Chinese Orthodox Brotherhood in Shanghai consists of many members, both Chinese and Russian.
At the end of the 19th century, Europe held all nations on Earth under its sway, with a few exceptions. Among these free non-European nations was the Chinese. China was subjected to terrible oppression, enslavement, and plunder.
In 1900, a group of Chinese rebelled against Europeans, whom they called "white devils." These rebels were called "Boxers," hence their rebellion, known as the "Boxer Rebellion." The Boxers began killing Europeans as evildoers, robbers, and tyrants. They hated everything European, including the faith brought to them by the European apostles. Their hatred of white people was also hatred of Christians. Hence, the Boxers' wrath turned against their own Christians—that is, the baptized Chinese. Several hundred Orthodox Chinese, considered Christian martyrs for their faith, or "for the Holy Cross," perished in that bloody Boxer Rebellion. We have chosen to describe the suffering and death of these Chinese martyrs here.
At that time, there was a Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, the capital of the Chinese state. The mission's leader was Archimandrite Innocent. As an eyewitness, he described those bloody events as follows: "The main day of martyrdom for Orthodox Chinese in Beijing was June 11, 1900. Even earlier that day, notices were posted all over the streets calling on the atheists to attack Christians. They also threatened death to anyone who tried to hide them. On the night of June 10-11 and later, the Boxers appeared with lit torches throughout Beijing, attacked Christian homes, seized Christians, tortured them, and forced them to renounce Christ. Fearing torture and death, many renounced the Christian faith and worshiped idols. But others were undeterred and heroically professed their faith in Christ. Their fate was terrible. Some had their bellies ripped open, others were beheaded, and still others were burned in their homes. The hunt for Christians and their extermination continued throughout the rest of the uprising. After burning many Christian homes, the Boxers led Christians outside the city walls and placed them before temples with idols. Here they were interrogated and then burned alive. 295 According to the testimony of the atheists themselves, some Orthodox Chinese faced their deaths with astonishing courage. Among them, Pavel Wang, a catechist, died under torture with a prayer on his lips; Yia Wen, a teacher at the mission school, was tortured twice. The first time, the Boxers slashed her with swords all over her body and, believing her dead, covered her with earth, but she regained consciousness. Hearing her groans, a guard carried her to his closet. But when the Boxers learned she was alive, they hacked her to death. Both times during her torture, Yiya Wen courageously, clearly, and joyfully confessed her faith in Christ the Savior before her tormentors. John Ji, an eight-year-old boy, the son of a murdered Chinese priest, was mercilessly wounded by the Boxers. His ears were cut off, and wounds were visible on his chest. When the torturers asked if it hurt, the little hero of Christ, John, answered with a smile, "It doesn't hurt to suffer for Christ!" Then the villains cut off his head and burned his body.
The Orthodox martyr Ji Chong was born in 1855. He was baptized as a child, and at the age of ten, he was ordained a catechist. At the age of 25, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Nicholas of Japan. The Russians called him Mitrofan. While still a child, Ji Chong lost his kind father, who loved him dearly and who entrusted him to his grandmother, Ekaterina, to be raised. His mother, Marina, was a teacher at a girls' school. Archimandrite Palladius, the then head of the Russian Mission, paid special attention to the young Ji Chong and sent him to the renowned teacher Long Yuan, who would prepare him for holy orders.
Ji Chong was meek, attentive, circumspect, and sensitive, responsive, and peace-loving. If he was ever punished or accused of something, he made no attempt to justify himself. He was hesitant to accept holy orders, refusing them, saying, "I am a weak and timid man; how can I dare accept such a great rank?" But persuaded by the mission leader and his teacher, Ji Chong, for the sake of holy obedience, which must reign in the Holy Church of Christ, submitted to the will of his mentors, even though he sensed that as a priest, a difficult fate and a martyr's death awaited him.
As a priest, Ji Chong was Archimandrite Flavian's chief assistant in translating liturgical and spiritual books into Chinese. He served God and his people in this manner for fifteen years. He endured many misfortunes at the hands of those around him, but he paid no attention to them.
During the Boxer Rebellion on June 1, 1900, the Russian Mission's premises were burned by the rebels. Many Christians, fleeing the fire, gathered in the home of Father Ji Chong. Among them were even those who disliked this man of God, but the merciful Ji Chong welcomed them and did not drive them away. Seeing that some were afraid and wavering, Ji Chong strengthened and encouraged them in the name of Christ. Every day, he left his house to look at the burned church and prayed to God in its ashes. On June 10, around 10:00 AM, the Boxers arrived at Ji Chong's home and surrounded it. There were about 70 Christians in the house at the time. Some were able to escape and save themselves, while the weak remained, along with the women and children. Father Ji Chong also remained. He had no intention of hiding. He sat in the courtyard of his house and waited for the Boxers. These atheists, knowing he was a priest, were especially enraged at him. So they immediately attacked him with drawn swords and pierced his chest. Mortally wounded, the priest fell under a tree and there surrendered his soul to God. Then the atheists rushed into the house and slaughtered all the other Christians hiding there.
In 1903, when the Chinese Empire was already at peace, a martyrs' church was erected in Beijing. The body of the holy martyr Ji Chong was transferred to this church and buried under the altar along with the bodies of other Chinese martyrs. A large cross was erected at the spot where Ji Chong died.
Thus gloriously did this unwavering warrior of Christ end his earthly life and enter the Kingdom of Heaven. From there, Ji Chong appeared to his fellow tribesmen when they were suffering, and as their angelic comforter, he encouraged and consoled them, pointing to the crowns of glory.
Priest Ji Chong had a wife, Tatiana, a member of the Li family, and three sons: Isaiah, Sergius, and John. Isaiah's wife was Mary. All of them suffered for Christ at that time; only the middle son, Sergius, survived, later becoming an archpriest.
Tatiana was 44 years old. She somehow escaped that terrible night, but the next day she was captured by the Boxers. They seized Tatiana and 18 other Chinese Christians, then led them out of the city through a gate called An-Ding-Ming and brought them to a Boxer camp called Xiao-Yin-Fang. Here, Tatiana and the others were beheaded. An Orthodox almshouse now stands on the site.
Isaiah was 23 years old. He served in the artillery. The Boxers captured him, knowing him to be a Christian. They beheaded him on the main street near the Pin-Tse-Min gate.
John was only eight years old. On the same night that his father, the priest Ji Chong, was killed, the Boxers seized little John; they wounded his shoulders, chopped off his toes, cut off his nose and ears. His aunt Maria somehow saved him from death. But the next day they found him sitting barefoot and naked at the gate and asked if it hurt. The little boy replied, "It doesn't hurt at all." The power of Christ alleviated the pain. Street children laughed at him and shouted, "Er-mao-tza!" These Chinese words mean "servant of the devil." This is how the atheistic Chinese called Christians. To this mockery, little John replied, "I believe in the true God, and I am not Er-mao-tza at all." 297 When he asked for a drink, they didn't give him any. Protasius Chan and Irodion Xiu, not yet baptized, testified that they saw this child with terrible wounds on his shoulders and legs. His wounds were deep, but he felt no pain. When the Boxers seized him again, John calmly and fearlessly walked where they led him, "like a lamb to the slaughter." Seeing this, an old man took pity on him and said, "What is this child guilty of? It was his parents who sinned, making him a servant of the devil." Others scolded him. But John paid no attention to all this, nor did the Boxer murderers who led him to the place of execution.
Maria, Isaiah's wife and the daughter-in-law of the priest Ji Chong, was 19 years old. Two days before the pogrom, she came to her father-in-law's house, wishing to die beside him. When the Boxers surrounded the priest's house, Maria did everything she could to courageously help others escape. She led them out of the house and supported them as they climbed over the wall. But then the Boxers and soldiers broke down the gates and entered the courtyard. Then Maria bravely stood before them and began to sternly rebuke them for killing so many people without any trial or investigation. The attackers stood petrified and did not dare kill Maria. But then they wounded her arm and cut her leg. Her brother-in-law, Sergius, tried three times to persuade her to leave and avoid death, but the courageous Maria answered him: "I was born here, at the Church of the Holy Mother of God, and I want to die here!" 298 And she remained. Soon the "boxers" came again and killed Blessed Mary.
This is how these Chinese Orthodox Christians suffered and received the crown of martyrdom. Their courage in confessing Christ as God and Lord before the atheists and their death for Christ without fear or hesitation connects them with the ancient Christian confessors and martyrs in lands close to our own.
Among the martyrs who suffered for the Lord Jesus Christ, there were many Albazinians. They are the descendants of those glorious Albazinians who, back in 1685, brought the light of Christ's Orthodox faith to Beijing, the capital of China. The Albazinians are a Mongol tribe in southern Russian Siberia who adopted the Orthodox faith back in the 17th century. Not everyone can become a martyr for Christ. This is granted only to those who have a special love for the Living Lord. It is a special reward from Christ to die a martyr's death, as He Himself once died. Because of the great love and devotion of the former Albazinians, the Lord rewarded their descendants with the crown of martyrdom.
The Albazinians Kui Ling and Hai Qihuang with their brother Vit, and Ana Rui with many others bravely faced death, unafraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul ( Matthew 10:28 ). They were first tortured, then killed in various ways by the atheists. The scenes of these wondrous martyrs kneeling and begging God to forgive their tormentors while they sharpened their swords to cut them down were incredibly moving. The heroic deeds of these brothers in the early 20th century, amidst atheistic China, parallel the events we know about in Jerusalem from the first days after Christ's Ascension.
In the bloody year of 1900, the Orthodox church community in Beijing was small, consisting of only a thousand Orthodox Chinese. Due to persecution and torture by the Boxers, some of them became afraid and fell away from the true faith, sacrificing to idols. Three hundred people suffered.
Truly, this was a tremendous loss for such a small community—almost a third. But this loss was blessed and became a gain. For those who suffered for Christ became stronger in Heaven than they were on earth. God fulfills their petitions and prayers. The growth and expansion of the Orthodox Church in China after 1900 can be attributed without hesitation to the prayers of the Chinese martyrs.
In China, there are Orthodox priests, deacons, catechists, and missionaries, as well as several church hospitals, schools, and orphanages. And so, thanks to the blood of Chinese martyrs, the Christian faith spreads and strengthens. And in China, as in all other countries, the truth of these words has been proven: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."