1929 - Timothy Leonard

July 17, 1929

Nanfeng, Jiangxi

Timothy Leonard.

The Irish Columban missionaries (also known as the Maynooth Mission) in China grew in number and influence throughout the early decades of the 20th century. Their first mission base was located at Hanyang in Hubei Province, followed by Nanfeng in Jiangxi Province. At one stage the mission numbered 40 foreign workers.

Timothy Leonard was born in 1893 at Ballycraheen, Ireland. He was educated at St. Munchin’s College, Maynooth, and ordained a priest at the age of 25. Later that year he joined the Maynooth Mission and was among the first from that group to arrive in China in March 1920. After eight years in Hubei Province, he was appointed to pioneer the new work at Nanfeng in Jiangxi Province.

At dawn on July 15, 1929, bandits associated with the Communist forces captured Leonard while he was praying in the chapel. The priest was torn from the altar, bound with ropes, and taken hostage into the mountains about 20 miles (32 km) from Nanfeng. Leonard’s young Chinese servant was also bound and taken away, but was released after the Irishman promised to pay all the money he had to the bandits. It amounted to only about $100. Leonard was put on ‘trial’ by the commander of the Communist detachment. He was accused of breaking the law and of collaborating with the Nationalists. Leonard replied that he had nothing to do with politics, but had come to China purely for spiritual reasons. The commander, with no emotion, wrote “condemned” on a piece of paper. Leonard was forced into a small hut with about a dozen other captives. Then,

“As each name was called the prisoner was led out to be stabbed to death at the door. Father Leonard’s head was nearly severed from his body. An elderly Chinese gentleman, spared because he paid a ransom, told three Catholics of what had happened. They put the dead priest in a coffin on July 20, and carried him to Nanfeng.”[1]

Timothy Leonard became the first Columban martyr on July 17, 1929.

In 2001, 72-years after the Irishman’s death, his cousin John Leonard visited the graveside in China to pay his respects. He also visited the church where his cousin had been captured by the Communists, only to find that

“the church was now a children’s playschool and a large stone star representing the Communist Party was erected above the main entrance. The residence next door, where Fr. Leonard lived, was in ruins. The presbytery stands in the grounds of the police station and the visit was under stony-faced police surveillance.”[2]

1. Edward Fischer, Maybe a Second Spring: The Story of the Missionary Sisters of St. Columban in China (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1983), 64.
2. Limerick Leader (December 1, 2001).