1900 - Rosa Chen Aijie & Teresa Chen Qingjie

July 5, 1900

Ningjin, Hebei

Rosa Chen Aijie & Teresa Chen Qingjie. [CRBC]

Chen Aijie and her sister Chen Qingjie came from Feng village in Ningjin County, Hebei Province. At their baptismal ceremony they adopted the names Rosa and Teresa respectively. The two girls had very different temperaments. The elder Teresa was more serious and reserved, while Rosa was outgoing and vivacious. Both loved Jesus Christ with all their hearts.

In 1900, the news of the Boxers massacring Christians across China caused alarm, and most believers decided to try to flee before they were killed. Rosa (aged 22) and Teresa (25) joined a group of ten friends and relatives who hired a cart to flee to a neighbouring town. Caught on the way by a mob of Boxers,

“the driver begged the Boxers to spare the women and children but was beheaded for his pains. Two boys, 12 and 17, cousins of the Chen family, were also beheaded and their mothers wounded. Three others escaped. With two dead, three seriously wounded and three escaped, that left just the two Chen sisters surviving.”[1]

One of the Boxers started to drag Teresa away, but she struggled with him. The man then produced a long knife and stabbed her to death. In a bid for her life, Rosa “offered the Boxers all the money she had and the cart. The Boxers thought she was weakening [in her faith], and said: ‘Abandon your faith and come with us!’ She refused and they knifed her.”[2]

Some of the surviving family members rushed to where the killings had slaughter had taken place and found Rosa still clinging to life and saying her prayers. She was dehydrated and asked for water, but none was available. Finally, rescuers came and carried Rosa and her sister’s body back to the village. Rosa died on the way.