1937 - The Zhengding Massacre

September 9, 1937

Zhengding, Hebei

Six Chinese Catholic priests at their consecration ceremony, 1926.

Zhengding County in Hebei Province last long been one of the strongest Catholic areas in China. In 1948—the year before the advent of Communist rule—there were 52,000 Catholics in the Zhengding Diocese.[1] The growth of the Church in Zhengding came about through much hardship and persecution. One of the worst incidents took place during the Japanese occupation in 1937, when nine Catholic priests were murdered. On the evening of September 9, a group of about 40 priests gathered for a meal at the residence of Bishop Francis Xavier Schraven.

Because of fighting in the city, the priests had been confined to the Zhengding Cathedral since the end of August. After the soup was served, Japanese soldiers stormed the house, and the nine men were seized and brutally slain in cold blood. The victims were Bishop Schraven (who was a 65-year-old native of the Netherlands), Lucien Charny (France, 55); Thomas Ceska (Austria, 65); Eugene Bertrand (French, 32); Gerard Vouters (Netherlands, 28); Anthony Geerts (Netherlands, 62); Vladislas Prinz (Poland, 28); Father Emmanuel (France, 60) and Biscopich, a Czech layman who was in Zhengding to repair the cathedral organ.

This and other constant attacks on the Catholics of Zhengding over the years have done nothing to destroy the church there. Today there are at least 30,000 Catholics living in the city and surrounding areas.