1900 - The Wu Family

July 1900

Tianjin

Although Tianjin was largely spared the worst of the Boxer atrocities due to the large number of foreign soldiers stationed there, one of those who perished was a ‘Bible woman’ named Wu and her family.

Mrs. Wu had studied in the training school at Tianjin for several terms, impressing the teachers with her zeal and dedication to the Lord. She was then employed by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, and sent to Daicheng as a ‘Bible woman.’ Wu was visiting her home in Tianjin when she heard that the Boxers were about to launch an attack on Daicheng. When the missionaries suggested she stay with them instead of returning to Daicheng, she replied, “O, no! I must return and comfort the Christians. I taught them, you see, and must stand by them. Some of them are so afraid of what the Boxers may do. I am not afraid of them. They are all of the devil anyway. They cannot harm the soul, only the body.”[1]

The local people all knew Wu was an enthusiastic Christian, and when they saw she had returned they immediately reported it to the Boxers. She was arrested, taken to a temple, and tied to a pillar and beaten across the breast. During the torture she never uttered a cry. Because of her refusal to offer a sacrifice to the idols,

“a bunch of lighted incense was held to her face till the flesh was burned off. The Boxers were greatly opposed to the women unbinding their feet; and as she had done so they first cut off her feet and hands and hung them on a tree, and as she still continued to praise the Lord, it so angered them that they beheaded her and then hacked her body to pieces.”[2]

One of Mrs. Wu’s sons and his wife were also martyred in Tianjin. Her husband and two other sons were captured and severely beaten. The husband died from the wounds he had received but the sons escaped death. In all, four members of the Wu family gained martyrs’ crowns in the summer of 1900.