1900 - Patricius Dong Bodi & Family

July 9 – August 13, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Patricius Dong Bodi, the first of a family of martyrs. [CRBC]

Dong Bodi was born in 1882 at Guchengyin village near Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province. The eldest of four sons, he was taught from childhood to fear God and obey his Word. After believing in Jesus Christ, Dong was baptized and given the name Patricius. Dong was admitted to the minor seminary at Dong’ergou at the age of 11. He proved more knowledgeable and spiritually capable than many of his much older classmates. One source notes, “His behaviour was so mature that his classmates called him ‘the old man.’”[1] At the age of 13, Dong graduated and moved to the major seminary in Taiyuan. Over the next several years he proved himself an outstanding student. He was

“so devoted to study that he managed to learn several foreign languages, such as English, French and Latin. He also became the senior of the students of theology. That made him an evident choice for participation in the International Exhibition of Turin in 1897…. He joined several other seminarians and Bishop Fogolla on an extended tour that included…a trip through France, Belgium and England to raise funds for the vicariates of Shanxi Province. They returned to Taiyuan in 1899.”[2]

During the time in Europe all who met the young Christian believed he would be a great leader of the Chinese Church, but these dreams were cut short the following year. When the Boxer violence intensified, Dong decided to remain at the seminary and pray for the grace to become a martyr. The Boxers pitilessly decapitated him on July 9, 1900. Although Patricius Dong Bodi died at the age of just 18, he had already packed more into his short life than most people who live to an advanced age.

On August 13, 1900, the young martyr was joined in heaven by his parents and three brothers, who were among 130 Catholics slaughtered by the Boxers while they were praying inside their church.