1988 - Melchior Zhang

November 6, 1988

Xuanhua, Hebei

After the terrible massacre of more than 250 Catholics at Xiwanzi village, Hebei Province in 1946,[1] the church there took decades to recover from the devastation of that horrific time. Melchior Zhang started serving as pastor of a parish of the Xiwanzi Diocese immediately after his graduation from seminary in 1939. In 1949 he was arrested for the first time and spent 20 months in prison. In 1951 the Flemish Bishop Leon de Smedt appointed Zhang the Auxiliary Bishop. After de Smedt died in prison, Melchior Zhang replaced him and became the first Chinese Bishop of Xiwanzi. Zhang was deeply concerned with the recent establishment of the Catholic Patriotic Association, and warned believers against joining it. Fully aware of the consequences of his actions, Zhang nevertheless

“repeatedly and openly criticized the recently-founded Patriotic Association, which working for the Communist Party, was intended to control and dominate the Catholic Church in China. He forbade his priests to participate in it and for that reason he was arrested again.”[2]

Because of his love of Christ and his unwillingness to compromise his convictions, Melchior Zhang remained in a prison labour camp for the next 36 years, being finally released in 1985. His political and civil rights were stripped away, meaning he lived the rest of his life under house arrest at Xuanhua in Hebei Province. He was closely watched. Many Catholics believed he had been released from prison just so the government could use him as bait to attract other underground Catholic leaders into their net.

In October 1988 news emerged that Zhang was very sick with stomach cancer and was not expected to live much longer. A small group of former missionaries, who had known Zhang in the 1940s, tried to visit him but permission was denied by the government. Bishop Zhang heard about the failed attempt and expressed in a letter how sad he was that his friends had come all the way to China only to be disappointed. On November 6, 1988, the aged bishop passed away. Jerome Heyndrickx wrote the following summary of Zhang’s life and death:

“Melchior Zhang was respected by priests and Christians as a just, good and holy man. Since he got stomach cancer in 1986 Christians came forward to give their blood for transfusion to the old bishop…. According to their old tradition the Christians bought a beautiful coffin for the bishop long before, and gave it to him as a sign of their esteem and admiration. High on the hill in Xiwanzi they prepared a great tomb, built with thousands of stones carried up from the valley by young and old Christians…. For the Christians inside and outside his diocese, after years of persecution, he was a model of a faithful Church believer.”[3]