The Chinese Martyrs – Readings
(Note: While there are many choices for readings for today’s feast celebrating the the martyrs of China, this commentary focuses on the reading from John’s Gospel.)
Commentary on John 12:24-26
The Gospel reading from John is particularly appropriate for this celebration. Just before today’s reading begins we are told that some ‘Greeks’ had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. These were non-Jews who had probably converted to the Jewish faith. It is clear, too, that in Jerusalem they had heard people talking about Jesus and what he was saying and doing.
So they approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They may have approached him because ‘Philip’ (Filippos, literally ‘one who loves horses’) was a Greek name. They also probably knew that Philip was with Jesus so they told him:
Sir, we wish to see Jesus.
Philip then went to consult with his fellow disciple, Andrew (another Greek name, Andreas) and they both went to Jesus with the request.
It is at this point that our reading begins. Jesus answers their request in what seems a very strange and enigmatic manner. He says three things:
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.
Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.
In fact, this is a very clear answer to the ‘Greeks’. They asked to ‘see’ Jesus, but just to lay one’s eyes on him was not to see him. To see Jesus fully or properly requires that one have an insight and understanding of the inner mind of Christ. So Jesus cannot be ‘seen’ or understood unless one grasps the purpose and meaning of his death and resurrection. In order for it to be fruitful, a grain of wheat has to fall into the ground and effectively be disintegrated so that it will be transformed into a new plant, which in time will reproduce itself many times over.
This is exactly what Jesus will do. He will surrender his life through his suffering and death on the cross only to rise again in new life. But not only that, he will bring new life to countless numbers of people who, inspired by him, will become other ‘Christs’. And that is what we celebrate in the Eucharist when we take the bread, the fruit of wheat grains, and say the words:
This [bread] is my Body which will be handed over for you.
And we then share this Bread as a sign of our total identification with the Vision and the Way of Jesus.
And that is why Jesus says that, not only must he die, but all who wish to follow his Way will also have to be ready to surrender their lives—will have to be grains of wheat losing themselves to bring more life to others. All who serve Jesus must go his Way, because where Jesus is, his servant is there too.
All of this, of course, applies beautifully to the martyrs we celebrate today. They and all their flock, like the grain of wheat, fell to the ground and died, but out of their death came life. Far from being wiped out, the Church only flourished, and it continued to flourish during the worst days of the Communist regime—and it continues to thrive in easier, but still difficult conditions.
And what was the secret of these priests and the martyred lay disciples? It is faith in Jesus Christ that shows we are truly children of God. And we know that we truly love the children of God (and are not all his children?) when we show our love for God by keeping his commandments. As the Gospel says, the commandments of God can be summarised in one:
…that you love one another. (John 13:34)
That is how we will be recognised as followers of Jesus.
It was this faith-inspired love which led these priests to devote their lives to their people, to stay with them in times of danger and finally to die side by side with them. This is what we celebrate today. We remember that:
…this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5)
The witness of these four priests and the countless martyred lay disciples is the answer to the question. Let them be an inspiration to us.
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The Chinese Martyrs
“The Chinese Martyrs” is the overall name given to a large number of Christians, specifically Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who were killed in China during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They are celebrated as martyrs by their respective churches. Most were Chinese laypeople, but others were missionaries from various countries. Many of them died during the Boxer Rebellion.
The Roman Catholic Church recognizes 120 Catholics who died between 1648 and 1930 as its “Martyrs in China”. Of the group, 87 were Chinese laypeople and 33 were missionaries; 86 died during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
The ‘Boxer’ movement to persecute Catholics and expel foreigners from China began after the coup d’état of 1898 when the Dowager Empress Ci Xi imprisoned her nephew, the young Emperor Guangxu. China had signed a treaty with France in 1858 that allowed Catholic missionaries to re-enter China, and the Church steadily flourished. Some people were hostile to Catholics because they did not take part in the public festivals honouring China’s deities. The anti-Catholic and anti-foreign bias boiled over at the end of the century when a quasi-religious movement known as Yihe tuan began a systematic movement to destroy the Church. The English gave them the name by which they are best known, the Boxers, because strenuous gung fu training was part of their preparation. During the violence of the Boxer Rebellion approximately 30,000 Catholics were put to death.
Four of the martyrs were Jesuit priests: Leon Mangin, Paul Denn, Rémy Isoré and Modeste Andlauer. Modeste Andlauer and Rémy Isoré were the first Jesuits to die in the rebellion. Killed as well were Mary Zhu Wu, who died defending the priests, and a teenage girl, Anna Wang. They all died when Boxers attacked the missions at Wuyi and Majiazhuang.
Remi Isoré was born in Bambecque in the diocese of Lille on 22 July, 1852. He began studies for the diocesan priesthood, but decided to join the Jesuits before he was ordained. He entered the novitiate at Saint-Acheul in 1875 and was sent to China in 1882. After four more years of training, he was ordained a priest.
Modeste Andlauer was born in Rosheim, in the diocese of Strasbourg, in 1847. He entered the Jesuits in 1872 and was ordained priest in France before setting out for China in 1882.
When the Boxer Rebellion began, Isoré was stationed in Weixian, in the Zhili district of Tianjin. He had left his mission for a rest break at another Jesuit community when news arrived that Boxers were present near Weixian. Isoré did not want to leave his people alone in this moment of danger, so he attempted to return to his own mission. When he got to the village of Wuyi, where Andlaeur was stationed, Isoré noticed the Boxer insignia on the village gate, indicating that they were inside. The Boxers had come to free some companions who had been captured and imprisoned there since the previous winter.
Isoré decided to stay with his brother Jesuit. The next afternoon the two Jesuits heard swords pounding on the door of their residence. They went into an adjoining chapel and locked the door behind them, but the Boxers easily broke through the outer door and then the chapel door. They found the two priests kneeling on the floor in prayer and attacked them with lances, killing them immediately. Then they beheaded them and displayed their heads on the village gates as a brutal warning of what awaited Christians who did not return to their ancestral religion.
Leon Mangin was born in Verny, in the diocese of Metz, on 31 July, 1857. He entered the Jesuits in 1875 and arrived in China in 1882. He studied theology and the Chinese language and was ordained in 1886. He arrived in Zhujiahe in 1900, when the Boxer Rebellion was already under way. When he arrived, the number of inhabitants in the area had swelled from 400 to almost 3,000 because of the threat of attacks. The French Jesuit fortified the town as well as he could and stockpiled supplies. He also asked Paul Denn, another French Jesuit, to leave a nearby village and join him. Denn had worked as a bank clerk before entering the Jesuits to become a missionary. He was ordained in China in 1880.
The Boxers attacked the fortified village on 15 July, 1900, but the villagers were able to drive them back. Another attack the following day was also unsuccessful, but then 2,000 soldiers of the imperial army interrupted their journey to Beijing to reinforce the Boxers. When Mangin saw the size of the attacking group, he knew the village was doomed. Some people were able to slip away at night, but the two Jesuits chose to remain with their flock.
The attackers constructed towers that enabled them to scale the barricades, and on the morning of July 20 they fought their way into the village. The two Jesuit pastors gathered women and children into the church and led them in prayer, preparing them for what was to come. The few men left alive staggered into the chapel shortly before the Boxers broke down the church doors and confronted the assembled Catholics. They gave people one last chance to renounce their faith, but only a few did so. Then the shooting began. Denn intoned the Confiteor and Mangin pronounced the words of absolution. They were among the first to be killed, and then the attackers fired into the congregation and slashed at people with swords, before setting fire to the church roof. Their bones remained in place until 1901 when they were collected and placed in coffins, and then buried in the new church erected on the same site.
Along with their fellow martyrs, all four priests were canonized as saints by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 2000.
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