1900 - Maria Aspden

July 12, 1900

Datong, Shanxi

Maria Aspden.

Maria Aspden was a native of Preston in England. For more than 20 years she was the head-mistress of the Emmanuel Infants’ School, proving herself excellent at all she did. In 1884 the whole course of Maria’s life changed when she met Jesus Christ. One of her teachers later testified, “I noticed such a difference in her life and manner, that I longed to know the same blessedness which could make this happy change.”[1] The teacher later also became a Christian. After telling Maria about her newfound faith the next morning, she said,

“Never shall I forget her joy, and how she took me apart for praise and prayer. From that time on we were knit together in the closest of bonds, for we were united in Jesus Christ, our elder Brother. Under her watchful, tender, and loving care, I could not fail to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The influence of her sweet life will never be lost on me. She was most self-forgetful, and thoughtful of others, and would watch for and seize every opportunity to win a soul for Christ.”[2]

Not long after her conversion, Maria Aspden felt the Holy Spirit drawing her to become a missionary to China. Her desires to go were delayed because she had to take care of her two elderly parents. They passed away in 1891, and Maria immediately applied to the China Inland Mission. She was accepted, and reached Shanghai on February 6, 1892. The mission appointed her to the inland province of Shanxi, where she laboured with the McKee family.

As soon as Aspden could converse with the local women, she started a free sewing class in a bid to build friendships with them. She shared Bible stories and her testimony with them as they worked, and the Holy Spirit entered into the women’s hearts. A co-worker, Miss Barraclough, said,

“Her great love for little children helped to remove the prejudices and win the regard of the mothers, for the little things would run to her, or hold out their arms to her in the street. She held classes for the women, visited the villages, and was much beloved by the women wherever she went.”[3]

In 1898 Maria enjoyed her first and only furlough back to England. She returned in the spring of 1899, but had only a little more than a year in Shanxi before she was martyred on July 12, 1900, along with the other missionaries at Datong.

1. Broomhall, Last Letters and Further Records, 60.
2. Broomhall, Last Letters and Further Records, 60.
3. Broomhall, Last Letters and Further Records, 61.