Martyr Saints of China
The Martyr Saints of China, or Augustine Zhao Rong and his Companions, are 120 saints of the Catholic Church. The 87 Chinese Catholics and 33 Western missionaries from the mid-17th century to 1930 were martyred because of their ministry and, in some cases, for their refusal to apostatize.
Many died in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and 1901, in which anti-Western peasant rebels slaughtered 30,000 Chinese converts to Christianity along with missionaries and other foreigners.
The martyrs are remembered with an optional memorial on 9 July.
In the Martyrology
- July 9 Saints Augustinus Zhao Rong, priest, Pedro Sans i Jordà, bishop and vicar apostolic of Szechwan, and 118 companions, martyrs of China