1900 - Mark Ji Tianxiang & 11 Family Members

July 8, 1900

Jizhou, Hebei

Mark Ji Tianxiang. [CRBC]

Mark Ji Tianxiang was the 66-year-old Catholic leader of Yanzhuangtou village, located in Jizhou, Hebei Province. His brother was a priest, while Mark was widely respected for his godliness and also for his expertise in traditional Chinese medicine. It was noted, “In his medical service he treated all alike, rich and poor, except that the poor did not have to pay.”[1]

All martyrs are people with weaknesses and faults, but these are usually glossed over in the glowing reports of their lives. Mark Ji Tianxiang contracted a serious form of diarrhoea at the age of 40. In a bid to control the disease he took a little opium, but once he recovered he found himself addicted to the drug. His parish priest finally refused to serve him Communion. In his desperation, Mark Ji Tianxiang declared, “If I am ever to get to heaven, I must suffer martyrdom.”[2]

In early July 1900, the Boxer persecution was reaching its zenith in Hebei. The local magistrate tried to arrest Ji, but he was hiding in the house of a friend. On July 8th an enemy betrayed his location to the Boxers. Ji was beheaded, along with nine members of his immediate family and two relatives. Those killed were Mark Ji Tianxiang’s daughter-in-law Martha (44), and her daughters Bernadette (11), Mary (9), and son Francis Yu Xue (6); his second son Peter Yu Guangren (37) and his wife Mary Wang Yu (37), and their children Yu Zhao (3), Yu Gao (9), and Mary Yu (7). Two other relatives, who had come from Wanjiazhuang, were also slashed to death: Magdalena Yang Chen (66) and her grand-daughter Magdalene (7). In total, five adults and seven small children aged 11 and under were massacred by the demonised Boxers.