1947 - Peter Zhang & Eight Christians

1947

Lingyuan, Liaoning

As Communist mayhem spread throughout China in the late 1940s a Chinese priest named Peter Zhang (Chang), pastor of the Catholic church at Lingyuan in Liaoning Province, was arrested along with five Belgian and two Chinese priests of the Scheut Mission. Also arrested was Matthias Li, a member of the Order of the Sacred Heart. Li was finally released from prison in July 1948 and immediately travelled to Beijing to report what had taken place.

When Peter Zhang and the other priests were bound and carried off, Zhang cried out in Latin in a loud voice, “Moriamur fortiter!” (‘Let us die bravely!’). The guards were angry with him for communicating in a language they could not understand, but Zhang had made his point and strengthened his brothers for the trial awaiting them. On the following day the priests were tortured, and the authorities tried to elicit ‘confessions.’ This attempt failed, so they were paraded through the streets of Lingyuan with signs hanging around their necks condemning them as ‘Primary Evil Doers.’ A public trial was commenced at a theatre before 4,000 spectators. Peter Zhang was brought onto the stage and ordered to “confess his crimes.” When he refused to speak, he was beaten with wire until he lost consciousness. When he came to, the leading official screamed,

“‘Now will you confess?’

‘Confess what?’ he asked. ‘I have done nothing wrong. Each of us must follow his own conscience.’

‘There is no longer any such thing as conscience,’ replied the commissar.

The priest replied, ‘So long as human beings continue to live, they will have consciences.’ When it became evident that the crowd was sympathetic to his words, the court was rapidly adjourned.”[1]

The next day Zhang and the other Catholics were sentenced to prison. Before leaving, many of them were spitefully tortured. Because of his bold answers on the previous day, Peter Zhang was singled out for special attention. He was

“taken out of his cell in chains for a midnight interrogation, during which both his legs were broken in a ferocious beating; a few minutes later, he died and his body was thrown into the river. Eight members of his parish were killed as his ‘accomplices.’”[2]

Matthias Li, who had been arrested with Peter Zhang, ended up serving time in four different prisons. Between November 1947 and July 1948, he endured seven different torture sessions, during which he

“was whipped, clubbed, and suspended by shackled arms from the branch of a tree. Sometimes he was tied to the floor of his cell by close-fitting iron rings. For seven days and nights his wrists were bound with wire that cut into the flesh. Every few days he was taken out of the freezing cell and offered freedom and a cash bribe if he would apostatize…. Eventually, his captors tired of Brother Li’s resistance and set him free.”[3]

1. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 33.
2. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 33.
3. Palmer, God’s Underground in Asia, 34.