1900 - Mary Du Tian & Children

June 29, 1900

Shen Xian, Hebei

Mary Du Tian and her teenage daughter Magdalen. [CRBC]

Mary Du Tian, a 42-year-old mother of five, was murdered along with three of her children in 1900. Mary and her family lived at Du village in Shen Xian, Hebei Province. When the Boxers came to their village on June 29, 1900, Mary and three of her children hid in a pit covered with reeds. The Boxers were tipped off to their location.

As they prepared to shoot them all, Mary’s 19-year-old daughter, Magdalen Du Fengju, suddenly leaped up and ran to the house of a friend, only to find that the door was locked when she came to it. She slumped down in the doorway and awaited her fate. The pursuing Boxers let out a fiendish howl when they caught up with her. They shot her and then ran back to the pit. There, Mary Du Tian and her two sons Matthew and Timothy refused to denounce Christ and were killed.

The villagers had witnessed these events and had started to dig a ditch to bury the dead bodies when a friend of Magdalen discovered that she was still alive. The bullets had severely wounded her, but she was still breathing. The friend pleaded with Magdalen to deny her faith in order to save her life, but she replied, “Impossible! I want to go to heaven and be happy with my mother and brothers.”[1] The Boxers threw all four into the ditch. “Magdalen peacefully took her place among the others, pushing the bodies of her mother and brothers to one side. She covered her face with her sleeves and was buried alive at the age of 19.”[2]