Deepertruth: Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions

Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions 7/9/2023

Augustine Zhao Rong, a Chinese diocesan priest. Having first been one of the soldiers who had escorted Monsignor Dufresse from Chengdu to Beijing, he was moved by his patience and had then asked to be numbered among the neophytes. Once baptized, he was sent to the seminary and then ordained a priest.

He was arrested in 1814 and condemned to exile in Tartary, where he remained for almost twenty years. Returning to his homeland he was again arrested, and was strangled on 17 May 1834. Blessed Joachim Ho, a Chinese lay catechist. He was baptised at the age of about twenty years.

The Dominican Martyrs of China died between 1648 and 1748. They bore heroic witness to the Truth of the Gospel. Through enduring the tortures and cruelties they suffered, they showed that there was something deeper and more important to seek than worldly comfort.

Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China’s relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly.

The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Eighty-seven of them were born in China, and were children, parents, catechists, or laborers, ranging in age from nine years to 72. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests. The 33 foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Society of Jesus, Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesians), and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.