1856 - Lawrence Bao Xiaomin

February 29, 1856

Xilin, Guangxi

Lawrence Bai Xiaomin. [CRBC]

Bai Xiaomin was born in 1821 in Shuicheng County of Guizhou Province. The population of Guizhou at the time was dominated by minority tribesmen such as the Miao, Bouyei and Dong, but an increasing number of Han Chinese people had been migrating into the area in search of land. Bai came from an extremely poor family, a position exacerbated when both his parents died while Bai was still a young boy. He was forced to hire himself out as a labourer in order to survive.

In 1851, when he was 30, Bai moved to Yaoshan village in Xilin County within the neighbouring province of Guangxi. He was able to secure a job and was considered a sincere and good-hearted person. Bai found a wife at Yaoshan but because he did not own a house, the newlywed couple moved in with the bride’s mother. The next year a little daughter was born to Bai Xiaomin and his wife.

In the year of 1854 the French missionary Auguste Chapdelaine visited Guangxi and instructed the local Christians in the faith. Bai was strangely drawn both to the foreigner and his strange teachings. He followed him around, listening intently to every word the Frenchman said and comparing those words with the quality of his life. Bai gradually became convinced of the truth of the gospel and decided to follow Christ. At his baptism he was given the name Lawrence. Just ten days later, on February 24, 1856, a mob of one hundred armed men descended on Yaoshan village to capture Chapdelaine.

Lawrence Bai Xiaomin managed to escape, but the next day he decided to return to the village to see how he could help. While he was there five or six women—wives and mothers of those men who had been arrested and dragged away by the mob—were in deep distress, not knowing what they should do to secure the return of their loved ones. Bai consoled them, and agreed to travel to the town with them in order to lodge a protest with the local magistrate. The women expressed some concern for their safety, as it was the same magistrate who had ordered the arrest, but the brave new Christian assured them,

“‘What are you afraid of? If you do not like to go alone before the magistrate I will accompany you myself. If it is necessary for us to die, let us have no fear in offering our lives for the glory of God and the salvation of our souls.’ With these words he led the way to the court…but instead of hearing their petition [the magistrate] had them all beaten and chained, discharging his wrath upon Lawrence Bai Xiaomin in particular, for having dared to bring the women inside his court.”[1]

When the local magistrate threatened to cut off Bai’s head if he refused to abandon his belief, the young Christian answered,

“You can cut off my head, and not only mine, but also those of my wife and children; but to renounce my religion, the religion of the Lord of heaven—to give up offering my humble prayers and adorations to Him, oh no! I will never be guilty of such treachery! Magistrate! Cut off my head if you will, but I will never be an apostate.”[2]

This response infuriated the officials, who ordered that Bai be severely flogged and tortured. One source says,

“Several times he passed out under the torture but he persevered in his faith. When physical force failed, the magistrate sentenced him to death. On his way to execution, Lawrence met his mother-in-law and bade her farewell. The place where he was beheaded was just outside the southern gate of the town. His remains were left in the wilderness there to be eaten by wild animals.”[3]

The severe 1856 persecution of the Catholic Church in Guangxi deeply affected the advance of Christianity in the province. Most missionary endeavour was put on hold until 1865. In 1878, twenty-two years after the martyrdoms, the total number of Catholics in Guangxi numbered only between 250 and 350.[4]

1. The New Glories of the Catholic Church, 136.
2. The New Glories of the Catholic Church, 140.
3. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 13.
4. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, 325.