1900 - The Shenyang Slaughter

July 8, 1900

Shenyang, Liaoning

The Boxers inciting people against the missionaries with a puppet show. The pig puppet represents the foreigners.

Laurent Guillon was born at Chindrieux, France, on November 8, 1854. After graduating from the seminary of the Missions Etrangères de Paris in 1877, he departed for Manchuria the following January. In 1880 an outbreak of smallpox resulted in the deaths of many Christians. Guillon himself was infected but escaped death. Two years later he travelled to Hong Kong where he contracted typhoid fever. On December 28, 1889, Guillon was named Titular Bishop of Eumenia and also Apostolic Vicar of Manchuria. These appointments were a great honour to the humble missionary, who was a contradiction to many of his co-workers. Most of the time he appeared meek and timid, but on other occasions he was as bold as a lion, never afraid to confront those in authority and to make a bold stand for righteousness.

After Guillon took charge of the Catholic work at Shenyang, “the effectiveness of the mission was greatly multiplied and it obtained remarkable results in the conversions of unbelievers, which, between 1894 and 1898 exceeded 10,000.”[1] When the Vatican separated Manchuria into two vicariates in 1898, Bishop Guillon remained as the leader of Southernmost Manchuria and had under his care 23 missionaries, eight Chinese priests, 115 catechists, and 20,050 Catholics.[2]

In late June 1900, the Boxers mobilized thousands of people in Shenyang to attack the Catholic mission. Bishop Guillon took refuge inside the cathedral along with missionary Nőel-Marie Emonet,[3] a Chinese priest Jean Li and two sisters of the Providence of Portieux. Crammed into the cathedral were also several hundred terrified Chinese believers. Together they managed to barricade themselves inside the cathedral for more than a week.

The Boxers, with the help of imperial soldiers, finally managed to break down the Catholics’ resistance by firing a canon from the city wall on July 3rd, which caused the buildings to catch on fire. One report says, “The big gate was battered in, and the French Bishop, two priests, two sisters, a number of Chinese priests, and several hundred Christians were killed by shot, sword, or fire. All the buildings were burned, and at last Shenyang was thought to be purged of the foreign poison.”[4]

Kenneth Scott Latourette had this to say regarding the persecution in Manchuria:

“Roman Catholics suffered severely, a native sect, the ‘Fasters,’ joining with the Boxers and the government in the orgy of extermination. Churches and chapels, residences, seminaries, schools, and orphanages were ruthlessly pillaged and burned. In Shenyang by the order of the authorities the Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Guillon, one foreign and one Chinese priest, two sisters, and hundreds of Christians were burned in their church after a futile defense. The bishop is said to have died in his robes, first wounded by a bullet and then decapitated.”[5]

1. My translation of the Biographical Note of Laurent Guillon in the Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris, China Biographies and Obituaries, 1900-1999.
2. Biographical Note of Laurent Guillon in the Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris.
3. Some publications spell his name Emoney.
4. Christie, Thirty Years in Moukden, 144.
5. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, 511.