1900 - Catholic Martyrs in Inner Mongolia

July 1900

Inner Mongolia

Joseph Segers, Amand Heirman, and Jan Mallet.

Catholic work had been underway in Inner Mongolia for more than 200 years by the time of the Boxer Rebellion. The CICM (Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae, or, in English, Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), comprised of Dutch and Belgians, dominated Catholic work in the province. The CICM was more commonly known as Scheut, after the village near Brussels in Belgium where the mission had its headquarters. The main strategy of their work was to buy up large tracts of farmland and turn them into productive communities, into which Chinese and Mongol converts could live and work. One of the motivations behind this plan was to avoid a repeat of the mass starvation that occurred during a long drought in the early 1890s. The strategy led to many thousands of new believers, but also contributed to the high number of Boxer martyrdoms that occurred in Inner Mongolia.

At the beginning of the 20th century there were more than a hundred CICM missionaries in Inner Mongolia, serving a total of about 40,000 Catholics.[1] The Boxers knew the Catholics lived in these farming communes, and subsequently it was almost impossible for them to escape or hide.

In addition to Bishop Ferdinand Hamer (whose martyrdom has been profiled separately), the following Scheut missionaries lost their lives to the Boxers in Inner Mongolia: Joseph Segers (aged 25, from East Flanders, Belgium) was murdered on July 24th at Luanpingxian. A fellow priest gave this account of Segers’ death:

“On 21 July, Father Segers was loaded onto a cart…and delivered into the hands of the magistrate…. The magistrate cursed him once more for being a European devil…meanwhile others were digging a grave on the bank of the river…. When they came to the grave, they tore the clothes from Father Segers; he tried to speak but one man beat him, another split his forehead with a sabre blow and the others threw him, still alive, into the grave, which they filled immediately with sand. After some time they dug up the corpse and threw it into the river.”[2]

On August 13, 1900, two missionaries perished at Ningyuanting: Amand Heirman (37, from East Flanders, Belgium), and Jan Mallet (29, from Limburg, Belgium). The two Belgians had taken refuge in a village with about 1,000 Chinese Catholics. The believers successfully repulsed three separate Boxer attacks. Local officials then resorted to deceit in a bid to flush the missionaries out of the village. A number of carts and armed soldiers were sent with assurances that the missionaries would be safely taken to Beijing. They had

“hardly gone a mile when they saw their churches burning behind them, while the officials, seated on the roof of a house, looked on laughing. The native Christians were then forced to recant or were put to death. The missionaries…were seized by soldiers and Boxers, who put them to death.”[3]

Joseph Dobbe, Désiré Abbeloos, André Zijlmans, and Iacobus Lu.

A trio of missionary-priests were burned to death inside the church at Tiegedangou on August 22nd: Joseph Dobbe (36, from North Brabant, Netherlands), Désiré Abbeloos (29, from Flemish Brabant, Belgium), and André Zijlmans (26, from North Brabant, Belgium). Another priest named Gisbert Jaspers lost his life. Also martyred were a group of 14 Swedish Protestant missionaries and their children, whom the Catholics had sheltered after finding them wandering around naked and distressed in the desert.[4] A survivor later wrote:

“We numbered four priests, fourteen Swedes, and sixteen hundred Christians. I went away to gather in our people from a station to the north, thinking that we should not be attacked. I was deceived, as during my absence on the August 22nd, the place was attacked by 1,300 troops in three columns. The attack commenced at noon, and by four o’clock the village was destroyed…. Dobbe, Abbeloos, and Zijlmans, and the Swedish women and children, were killed or burned in the church…. The remainder of the Christians took to flight.”[5]

Most of the names of the many Chinese Catholics who died at the hands of the Boxers have not been recorded, but some of the known deaths include a 52-year-old priest named Iacobus Lu, who died at Xiaonuo on July 23rd. In the South-western Mongolia Diocese alone, the list of martyrs included Franciscus Zhe Qiong (aged 47), Thomas He Shenzheng, Henry Yu Sanhan (22), Zhao Baozhuze (24), Zhang Ouxiao (16), Anna Cheng (34), Theresa Chang (30), Theresa Zhang (27), Maria Fan (20), Wang Degui (64), Martha Fan (37), He Daming (52), Paul Zheng Fu (24), Martha Zhang Hongwa (51), Martha Zhao Bi, Zhou Jun, Maria Jian Fu, Paul Cai Yu, Zheng Lei, Magdalena Meng, Anna Zhao Shangniuzhe (17), Casimirus Zhao Shouliang (38), Gou San, Mi Jiuyu (24), He Liu (30), Zhang Gengyu, Paul Yang Danzhe (30), Peter Yin Dejing (73), Pius Yao Fulin (43), Peter Hou Zhanou (19), Liu Maogong, Yin Fengming, Zhang Shangkuan (56), Wei Maoran (60), Wang Rui (50), Li (50), and Dian Doubao (40).[6]

After the Boxer slaughter in Inner Mongolia had run its course, investigations into the impact on the Catholic communities there brought shocking results. One report in 1902 found that

“Out of three hundred and forty-seven villages in which we had converts none escaped the Boxers, who were helped by the soldiers, and, I may say, by all the Chinese from the highest official to the lowest beggar. Men, women, and children wished to dip their hands in foreign blood; and even the heathen Chinese who had worked for us, or who had eaten our food, were pitilessly massacred…. More than 1,500 of our Christians were killed with unexampled cruelty. Our houses and the houses of our native Christians were pillaged and burnt. Even now about 3,000 of our Christians are fugitives, without shelter, food, or clothing—exposed to the rigours of a Mongolian winter. The massacre commenced on 6th July and lasted for several weeks.”[7]

In later years estimates of the number of Inner Mongolian martyrs increased even higher. The historian Kenneth Scott Latourette places the number of deaths in Inner Mongolia at 3,000. He wrote:

“All through the eastern and southern parts of the region were slaughter and the destruction of property. In at least one locality Mongols led in the attack. Here and there bodies of Christians fortified their refuges and held off their persecutors; in one place alone four thousand or more Catholics were besieged…. All told, in [Inner] Mongolia nine missionaries and three thousand Chinese Christians are said to have been killed and many others of the Chinese Christians died of privation, a heavy toll from so young a mission.”[8]

1. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, 510.
2. Daniel Verhelst & Nestor Pycke, CICM Missionaries, Past and Present, 1862-1987 (Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 1995), 89.
3. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 108.
4. See the 1900 profile Protestant Martyrs in Inner Mongolia for more information.
5. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 108-109.
6. The names in this list are taken from the www.newsaints.faithweb.com website.
7. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 105.
8. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, 511.