1900 - John Wu Wenyin

July 5, 1900

Yongnian, Hebei

John Wu Wenyin. [CRBC]

The Boxers did not always get their way during the summer of carnage in 1900. At many locations the Christians defended their villages and homes for a while, before succumbing to the constant barrage of the bloodthirsty men.

John Wu Wenyin was a 50-year-old Catholic from Dongertou village in Yongnian County, Hebei Province. For years he had been the leading Catholic in his village. When the Boxers came on July 5, 1900, the whole population, Christians and non-Christians, joined forces and repulsed the attackers. The next day the local magistrate came to the village and arrested Wu and brought him to trial. Just before this happened, As he was being led away, his mother exhorted him:

“‘Son, remember, you may never apostatise. If you do, you will no longer be my son.’ He replied: ‘Mother, go back home and do not worry. Thank you very much for bringing us up by yourself as a widowed mother. I am going to die for God. Goodbye. I’ll see you in heaven.’”[1]

During the trial the magistrate did all he could to make John Wu Wenyin deny his faith. He was tortured mercilessly, in a variety of sinister ways, before the authorities realized nothing they could do would change his mind, so they beheaded him. In 2000 Pope John Paul II declared John Wu Wenyin a saint.