His death was reported prematurely in September 2004, then confirmed in January 2005 — an instance of the withholding recorded in Section 02.[20]
Scope and Method
Who is included. Three groups, in one calendar. First, Catholics of any nationality who died in territory controlled by the Chinese Communist Party — from the Jiangxi and northern base areas of the 1930s and 1940s through the People's Republic to the present — where the death was caused by Party or state action: execution, death in prison or labor camp, death on a forced march, death under torture, or death in undisclosed custody. Second, those who died at home under house arrest or continuous surveillance after long imprisonment; their entries say so, since the distinction matters for any future cause. Third, the living: bishops and priests who refused to join the state-run Patriotic Association or otherwise to compromise, and who are held in secret detention, forcibly disappeared, or confined under house arrest as of 13 September 2026. The living are entered on the day their present detention or disappearance began, so that the calendar can be prayed as a whole; Section 03 repeats all of them in one roll, adding those for whom no arrest date is public. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are in scope; Hong Kong enters with the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai.
What each entry carries. Name in the Western and Chinese forms the person used; office and religious institute; date and place of death; the persecution context; the canonical status of the person's cause; the evidence grade; and sources. Three status labels are used: Servant of God where a cause has been opened; No cause on record where none has been found; Fate unconfirmed for the disappeared; and Detained · refused compromise for the living. Evidence chips follow the house convention: measured date and place documented by more than one independent source; reconstructed assembled from testimony or a single source; unknown withheld by the state.
What the calendar can and cannot hold. Every entry in the calendar is verified against at least one primary or scholarly source. The number of Catholics who died under the Party runs to the thousands; most are known, if at all, only in diocesan memory and in three collections — Fazzini's Red Book of Chinese Martyrs, Moreau's Blood of the Martyrs, and Clark's China's Modern Martyrs series. Section 05 records, by persecution and diocese, the persons whose arrest or death is documented but whose day of death the sources do not give; they belong to the martyrology as much as those with dates, and are listed there so that the record of their names is not lost for want of a day.
The bias runs in one direction throughout. The Shanghai clergy are the best documented group on the page because one survivor, Fr. Thomas Lu Dacheng, S.J., published a memorial of his confrères in 2014 and closed it with the words "this list is incomplete";[38] the village catechists, religious sisters, and lay Legion of Mary members taken in the same years have no such memorialist. Hebei's underground bishops are recorded because Rome recognized them and foreign agencies reported their deaths; the priests taken with them mostly are not. The reader should take every empty month, every "name not given," and every group entry as a measure of what was lost to the record, not of what happened.
Calendar
The family learned of his death on 30 January 2015 from a village official in Baoding; the authorities then retracted the acknowledgment and have never returned the body or ashes. Bishop Shi had spent roughly thirty years of his life in prison and labor camps before the final detention. Because the date of death is withheld, the memorial is kept on the day the death became known; the entry is repeated in Section 02.[5, 6]
Recorded by Fr. Sergio Ticozzi, P.I.M.E., from Chinese Catholic testimony; the characters of the name are given as reported and not independently verified.[19]
The first Catholic bishop to die in Communist custody after 1949. His companion Sr. Joan Marie Ryan, M.M., held in the same prison, was released in 1952 and carried the account out. The cause for his beatification has been opened by the Diocese of Brooklyn.[1]
Held at the former bishop's residence in Baoding without warrant or trial for about eighteen months; his body was returned to relatives wrapped in plastic, with marks around the neck and bruising to the chest, forehead, and legs. Bishop Fan was the principal architect of the underground hierarchy in Hebei, having consecrated bishops clandestinely with faculties from Rome. The Holy See was not notified of his death by the state; the family and the Associated Press reported it.[2, 3, 5]
Fr. Sergio Ticozzi's 2016 survey in Tripod, as summarized by World Mission and by Human Rights Without Frontiers, gives the month and the cause but not the diocese or the day. The same summer the Red Guards beat an elderly priest to death in the grounds of a north Beijing church and buried him where he fell (Section 02), and on 24 August attacked the seventy Chinese and seven foreign Franciscan Missionaries of Mary at the Sacred Heart school in Beijing; Sr. Molly O'Sullivan died the day after reaching Hong Kong.[19]
Also in June, for the record of the calendar: on the night of 15 June 1953 Fr. Zhu Shude, S.J., was arrested in Shanghai — the beginning of the thirty years that ended on 28 December 1983 (see December).[21]
The first of the Shanghai "four talents" to die in custody; Fr. Beda Chang (張伯達) had died in 1951 (see 11 November). When told the Legion of Mary was the cause of the trouble, he answered that without the Legion they would have found the Sodality, or the Eucharistic Crusade, or any other group — the target was the whole Church.[28, 31]
The largest single Catholic death event under the Party before 1949, and the one Chinese Catholics still speak of quietly. The abbey, founded in 1883, was the mother house of Our Lady of Joy (Liesse), later re-founded on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Individual dates of death for the thirty-three are recorded in Jen and in Moreau; this entry keeps the memorial on the day the abbey fell.[7, 8, 9, 10]
The family was summoned to the hospital hours before his death and told nothing of his illness; the body was cremated the same night without an autopsy and the ashes buried under police guard. His diocese is the one in which several of the Boxer-era saints of 1900 died.[4]
Entered here on the date of his disappearance because no other date exists. If he is alive he would be in his nineties; if dead, the state has never said so. The entry is repeated in Section 02.[6]
Entered on the day the body was found, since the day of death is not established. The manner of death is contested; the entry records the contest, not a finding.[19]
Fr. Aedan McGrath, in the cell opposite, saw him fail over two months before he died on the morning of 11 November. Shanghai's Catholics turned out in such numbers for the requiem Masses that the government denounced the prayers as "a new type of bacteria warfare." He is the first priest to die in Communist custody after 1949 and remains the Shanghai Church's own protomartyr in popular memory.[11, 12]
The day and month are given in the Shanghai record of the 九八教難; the year is read as 1960 from the sequence of the account (sentence in March, illness in November) and is marked reconstructed until a second source fixes it.[29]
Three of his brothers were priests. Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan named its law building 樹德樓 for him in 1999, and his tombstone stands in the Jesuit cemetery at Ching Shan, Changhua. "As long as there are Christians left in Shanghai, I must return there. Because I am a priest. Wherever I am, the Church is."[21, 22]
Whether he was in detention or under house arrest on the day he died is not established from the sources available; the suppression of the news of his death is. Three priests of the neighboring diocese of Xuanhua — Frs. Zhang Cunhui, Zhang Zhanglin, and a Fr. Liu — had disappeared into custody the previous June.[23]
Date Withheld or Unknown
Where the state has never disclosed the day of death, or the day a continuing detention began, the calendar above keeps the memorial on the day the fact became known. This section lists such persons together so that the withholding itself is on the record. Those with no usable date at all appear only here.
| Name | See | Year | What is withheld | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop Cosmas Shi Enxiang 師恩祥 | Yixian | 2001–2015 | Date, place, cause of death; body or ashes[5, 6] | unknown |
| Bishop James Su Zhimin 蘇志民 | Baoding | 1997– | Whether he is alive; if dead, everything[6] | unknown |
| Bishop Joseph Xing Wenzhi 邢文之 | Shanghai (auxiliary) | 2011– | Whereabouts; forcibly disappeared after his removal in 2011; reported by Human Rights Watch in April 2026 as still disappeared, aged 63[15] | unknown |
| Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin 郭希錦 | Mindong (Fujian) | 2020– | Date the present house arrest began; stepped aside as ordinary under the 2018 arrangement, then subjected to harassment, forced political sessions, and house arrest[15, 16] | reconstructed |
| Fr. Zhu Xuefan, S.J. 朱雪帆 | Shanghai → Jiangxi | after 1960 | Day and year of death; sentenced to ten years, served at Madang, Jiangxi; died in the Shangrao labor-reform camp before his term ended[38] | reconstructed |
| Fr. Zhu Zhechi 朱者赤 | Shanghai | 1950s | Everything but the fact: a priest of the Shanghai network who died in a Shanghai prison shortly after arrest, with no trial, no recorded sentence, and no release; preserved in the author's research notes, citation pending[39] | unknown |
| Fr. Dong Shizhi 董世祉 | Nanjing / Chongqing | 1951– | Everything after his arrest: Benedictine-trained, ordained in Switzerland, incardinated in Nanjing 1936; head of the Central Bureau's catechetical section; on 23 June 1951, the feast of the Sacred Heart, told a Chongqing assembly that he gave his whole soul to God and the Church and his body to the country; denounced as "Riberi's faithful running dog," arrested, and never heard of again[30] | unknown |
| Bishop Francis Zhao Zhensheng, S.J. 趙振聲 | Xianxian (Hebei) | 1968 | Day of death; b. 30 Nov 1894; beaten by Red Guards in 1967 and thrown from a balcony, then imprisoned and tortured; died in prison the following year[24] | reconstructed |
| Sr. Zhang Ergu 張二姑 and an unnamed priest of north Beijing | Baoding; Beijing | 1966 | Days of death; the sister beaten to death with sticks for refusing to trample an image of Our Lady; the priest beaten to death by Red Guards and buried where he fell, a spot still tended by a parish gardener[19] | reconstructed |
| Bishop Liu Difen 劉迪芬 | Anguo (Hebei) | 1992 | Day of death; died immediately after the family was summoned to a hospital following imprisonment; the body bore two puncture wounds in the back[5] | reconstructed |
| The thirty-three of Yangjiaping (individually) | Chahar / Hebei | 1947–48 | Individual days for most of the thirty-three, recorded in Jen and Moreau[8, 10] | reconstructed |
Roll of the Imprisoned: Catholics Held at the Time of Writing
Bishops
| Name | See | Condition | Held since | What is known | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Su Zhimin 蘇志民 | Baoding (Hebei) | Forcibly disappeared | 8 Oct 1997 | Arrested while leading a procession to a Marian shrine; about 26 years in prison and camps before that; seen once, in a guarded hospital, November 2003; aged 94; the longest continuous secret detention of any bishop in the world[14, 15] | measured |
| Joseph Xing Wenzhi 邢文之 | Shanghai (auxiliary) | Forcibly disappeared | 2011 | Removed from office and vanished; reported by Human Rights Watch in April 2026 as still disappeared, aged 63[15] | measured |
| Augustine Cui Tai 崔泰 | Xuanhua (Hebei), coadjutor | Secret detention / house arrest | April 2021 (present spell) | Persecuted since 1993; detention, house arrest, and forced labor across 31 years; fourth secret detention since 2018; family visits intermittently permitted; aged 74–76[14, 15, 17] | measured |
| Thaddeus Ma Daqin 馬達欽 | Shanghai (auxiliary) | House arrest, surveillance, restricted ministry | 7 Jul 2012 | Confined at Sheshan from the day of his ordination for renouncing the Patriotic Association; title stripped by the state December 2012; restricted by a government-appointed bishop[9, 15, 17] | measured |
| Peter Shao Zhumin 邵祝敏 | Wenzhou (Zhejiang) | House arrest; taken again July 2026 | 2 Jan 2024 (present spell) | Six secret detentions since 2018 for refusing the Patriotic Association; removed with his chancellor in July 2026 to keep them from a priest's funeral[14, 15, 16] | measured |
| Vincent Guo Xijin 郭希錦 | Mindong (Fujian), resigned | House arrest | 2020 | Stepped aside under the 2018 arrangement; utilities cut and evicted January 2020; resigned October 2020 at 62; harassed and forced to political sessions; under house arrest per HRW April 2026[15, 16, 17] | measured |
| Joseph Zhang Weizhu 張維柱 | Xinxiang (Henan) | Detained without trial; state recognition reported 2026 | May 2021 | Arrested during cancer convalescence with priests and seminarians; seminary closed; confirmed detained March 2023; HRW reports him among bishops now recognized by Beijing — whether that ended the detention, and on what terms, is undisclosed[15, 17] | reconstructed |
| Melchior Shi Hongzhen 石鴻禎 | Tianjin | Confined to church compound | c. 2009 | House arrest for over fifteen years; recognized by the state in 2024 at 95; occasionally let out for religious duties; listed because the confinement continues[17] | reconstructed |
Priests
| Name | Diocese | Condition | Held since | What is known | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fr. Jiang Sunian 蔣孫年 | Wenzhou (chancellor) | Taken with Bishop Shao | July 2026 | Removed with the bishop before Fr. Chen Nailiang's funeral; no release reported[16] | measured |
| Fr. Lu Genjun 盧根軍 | Baoding (vicar general) | Secret detention | 2 Nov 2020 | Repeatedly imprisoned, including 2006–2014; taken into secret custody November 2020; no release on the public record as of the last profile consulted (2023)[27] | unknown |
| Frs. Zhang Cunhui, Zhang Zhanglin, and a Fr. Liu | Xuanhua | Disappeared into custody | June 2009 | Believed by their community to have been taken by state agents; no subsequent public confirmation of release or death found[23] | unknown |
| Priests and seminarians of Xinxiang | Xinxiang | Taken with Bishop Zhang | May 2021 | Seven priests and a number of seminarians reported arrested with the bishop when the seminary was raided; individual names and current status not on the public record consulted[17] | unknown |
Laity
Index by Status
| Status | Persons |
|---|---|
| Servant of God (cause opened) | Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, M.M. (Diocese of Brooklyn) |
| No cause on record | Fr. Beda Chang, S.J.; the Trappists of Yangjiaping; Bishop Fan Xueyan; Bishop Liu Difen; Bishop Han Dingxiang; Bishop Shi Enxiang; Bishop Fan Zhongliang, S.J.; Bishop Jia Zhiguo; Bishop Gao Kexian; Fr. Wang Shiwei; Bishop Xi Minyuan; Fr. Yu Heping; Fr. Zhu Shude, S.J.; Bishop Yao Liang; Bishop Zhao Zhensheng, S.J.; Sr. Zhang Ergu; Fr. Chen Zhemin; Fr. Wang Rensheng, S.J.; Fr. Zhu Xuefan, S.J.; Fr. Zhu Zhechi |
| Fate unconfirmed | Bishop James Su Zhimin; Bishop Joseph Xing Wenzhi; Fr. Dong Shizhi (since 1951) |
| Detained · refused compromise (living) | See the roll in Section 03: Bishops Ma Daqin, Cui Tai, Zhang Weizhu, Shao Zhumin, Guo Xijin, Shi Hongzhen; Frs. Jiang Sunian, Lu Genjun, the three Xuanhua priests of 2009, the Xinxiang clergy of 2021; Jimmy Lai |
The asymmetry is the finding. Of the persons the Chinese Church itself names first when it names its modern martyrs, only the one American bishop has a cause, and that cause was opened in the United States. No cause can be opened inside the People's Republic, and the diocesan phase of a cause requires the competent bishop, the documents, and the witnesses to be available to a tribunal. The withholding of bodies, dates, and records recorded in Section 02 is, among other things, the mechanism by which that door is kept shut.
Recorded Without a Day: The Persecutions by Diocese
The persons below are documented as arrested, imprisoned, or killed for the faith under the Party, but the sources cited do not give a day of death, or the person survived imprisonment and died later in freedom. They are set down by persecution and diocese so that the names stand with the calendar. Names already carrying a calendar entry are marked with the date; the rest carry what the record gives.
Shanghai, 1951–1960
| Arrest | Persons | What the record gives |
|---|---|---|
| 6 September 1951 | Frs. 陳哲敏 Chen Zhemin, 沈士賢 Shen Shixian, 侯之正 Hou Zhizheng, Le Grand, Prevost (prefect of Lindong); Fr. 莫克勤 Mo Keqin the same day | Taken at the Catholic Central Bureau and at the Columban house. 陳哲敏 died 26 Aug 1961 (calendar). The others: 沈士賢 survived to release; 侯之正, Le Grand, Prevost, and 莫克勤 were expelled or imprisoned, fates not given in the sources cited.[31, 28] |
| 15 June 1953 | Fr. 朱樹德 Zhu Shude, S.J. | Died 28 Dec 1983, Hefei prison (calendar).[21] |
| 7 July 1953 | Frs. 王仁生 Wang Rensheng, S.J., 陳天祥 Chen Tianxiang, S.J., 蔡石方 Cai Shifang, 傅鶴洲 Fu Hezhou | 王仁生 died 22 Dec 1960 at Digang (calendar). 傅鶴洲, the diocesan procurator, survived to anoint 陳哲敏 in 1961 and 王仁生 in 1960; 陳天祥 and 蔡石方 were sentenced in 1960; days of death not in the sources cited.[29] |
| Night of 8 September 1955 (九八教難) | Bishop 龔品梅 Ignatius Kung Pin-mei; Frs. 張希斌 Zhang Xibin, 金魯賢 Jin Luxian, S.J., 蔡方 Cai Fang, 朱洪聲 Zhu Hongsheng, S.J., 陳天祥, 王仁生, 陳雲棠 Chen Yuntang, 朱雪帆 Zhu Xuefan, 劉季澤 Liu Jize, 傅鶴洲, 李度 Li Du, 范忠良 Fan Zhongliang, S.J., and more than thirty priests in all; some 180 clergy, religious, and laity in the same case | Sentenced 17 Mar 1960. 龔品梅: life sentence, released 1985, house arrest, exiled 1988, cardinal in pectore 1979, died Stamford, Connecticut, 12 Mar 2000. 張希斌: twenty years as one of the three "unrepentant" priests; released 1978; rearrested November 1981 and held at the Shanghai No. 1 Detention Center, then confined under guard in the diocesan shelter because of illness; died 1990, day not given. 朱洪聲 Vincent Zhu Hongsheng, S.J. (1916–1993): fifteen years, kept at the farm after the term; rearrested 19 Nov 1981 as head of the "Zhu Hongsheng counter-revolutionary clique" for organizing a pilgrimage to Sheshan; fifteen more years, March 1983; released 1987; verdict annulled and civil rights restored by the Shanghai Intermediate Court, February 1993; died of heart disease 6 Jul 1993, five months later, in freedom. 傅鶴洲: fifteen years at Baihu; anointed 陳哲敏 there in 1961; rearrested November 1981. 蔡石方 Tsai Shih-fang, S.J.: twelve years, then kept in labor re-education; third arrest November 1981, ten more years; medical parole early 1989; died New York 1997. 朱立德 Matthew Chu Li-teh, S.J. (c. 1934–c. 2024): a Xujiahui seminarian taken that night with five of his brothers; twenty-seven years in prison and camps (released 1979, retaken 1981, released 1985); accompanied Cardinal Kung to the United States in 1988; ordained at sixty in Taipei, 9 Jan 1994; died in Taiwan. 金魯賢: released 1982, later state-recognized bishop of Shanghai, died 27 Apr 2013. 范忠良: died 16 Mar 2014 under house arrest (calendar). 朱樹德, 陳哲敏, 王仁生: calendar. 朱雪帆: died in the Shangrao camp (Section 02).[29, 31, 13, 38, 39] |
| The same case — names without particulars | Frs. 嚴蘊梁 Yan Yunliang, S.J., 劉季澤 Liu Jize, 吳應楓 Wu Yingfeng, 沈百順 Shen Baishun, 陸達源 Luke Lu Dayuan, S.J., 傅玉堂 Fu Yutang; Br. 朱菊初 Zhu Juchu; Fr. 朱者赤 Zhu Zhechi | Fr. Lu Dacheng records that these priests "were also sentenced to various terms, and some died in prison or on labor-reform farms," and that the list is incomplete. 陸達源, his elder brother, ordained in Shanghai three years before 朱立德, survived to found the Department of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei. 朱菊初, a religious brother — a reminder that the prosecution reached lay brothers and seminarians, not only priests — and 朱者赤 (Section 02) are preserved in the author's research notes with citation pending; the rest have no particulars in the sources cited.[38, 39] |
| August 1966 | The priests and sisters of Shanghai | Concentrated at 201 Caoxi North Road, churches closed, diocesan funds frozen, made to earn their keep by manual labor; individual deaths not given.[31] |
Hebei
| Diocese | Persons | What the record gives |
|---|---|---|
| Baoding 保定 | Bishop 范學淹 Fan Xueyan; Fr. 霍炳章 Huo Bingzhang, vicar general; Bishop 蘇志民 Su Zhimin; Bishop 安樹新 An Shuxin, auxiliary; Fr. 盧根軍 Lu Genjun, vicar general; Fr. 李道寧 Li Daoning; the clergy and sisters of 1966 | 范學淹 died 13 Apr 1992 (calendar). 霍炳章 jailed 1982–88 with the bishop, died 19 Feb 1992 of cancer at 82, in freedom. 蘇志民 disappeared 8 Oct 1997 (calendar, roll). 安樹新 imprisoned more than ten years, released 24 Aug 2006. 盧根軍 imprisoned 2006–14, secret detention from 2 Nov 2020 (roll). 李道寧, beaten unconscious and thrown on the Red Guards' pyre of church goods in 1966, fate not given. Sr. 張二姑 Zhang Ergu beaten to death 1966 (Section 02).[2, 19, 27] |
| Xianxian 獻縣 | Bishop 趙振聲 Francis Zhao Zhensheng, S.J.; the Jesuit clergy of 1966–68 | 趙振聲 thrown from a balcony 1967, died in prison 1968, day not given (Section 02); the cathedral and diocesan property destroyed; clergy, religious, and laity imprisoned or sent to camps.[24] |
| Xuanhua 宣化 | Bishop 趙振東 Zhao Zhendong; Bishop 趙克勳 Zhao Kexun; Bishop 崔泰 Cui Tai; Frs. 張存會 Zhang Cunhui, 張章林 Zhang Zhanglin, 劉 Liu; Fr. 陳海龍 Chen Hailong | 趙振東, 86, arrested December 2004, whereabouts unknown thereafter. 趙克勳 in hiding under warrant, 2009. 崔泰 detained since 2021 (roll). The three priests disappeared June 2009 (roll). 陳海龍 held two months in solitary in 2011 without food or sleep, released, never told where he had been. Prayer houses fitted with cameras to prevent prayer.[23, 15] |
| Yongnian 永年 | Bishop 韓鼎祥 Han Dingxiang | Died 9 Sep 2007 in custody (calendar).[4] |
| Zhengding 正定 | Bishop 賈治國 Jia Zhiguo; the sisters of his orphanage | 賈治國 imprisoned first 1963, arrested more than a dozen times, died 29 Oct 2025 under confinement (calendar). The orphanage for disabled children dismantled by police; the sisters' fate not given.[18, 14] |
| Anguo 安國 | Bishop 劉迪芬 Liu Difen | Died 1992 after imprisonment, body bearing two puncture wounds; day not given (Section 02).[5] |
| Yixian 易縣 | Bishop 劉冠東 Liu Guandong; Bishop 師恩祥 Shi Enxiang | 劉冠東, predecessor, imprisoned in the Mao years, retired 1995, day of death not given. 師恩祥 disappeared 13 Apr 2001, death acknowledged 30 Jan 2015 (calendar).[5] |
| Xiwanzi 西灣子 | Bishop 姚良 Leo Yao Liang; Bishop 郝進禮 Hao Jinli | 姚良 twenty-eight years in camps, died 30 Dec 2009 (calendar). 郝進禮, ordinary, imprisoned in the Mao years, died 2011 in freedom.[23] |
| Handan 邯鄲 | Bishop 楊祥太 Stephen Yang Xiangtai; Bishop 孫繼根 Joseph Sun Jigen; two priests arrested June 2011 | 楊祥太 arrested 1954, rearrested 1966, fifteen years in camps at Quzhou, the Handan brick factory, and the Tangshan salt works, released 15 Mar 1980, died 13 Oct 2021 at 98 in freedom. 孫繼根 held three days after his secret ordination of 21 Jun 2011; the two priests arrested in retaliation, fate not given.[32] |
| Tianjin 天津 | Bishop 石鴻禎 Melchior Shi Hongzhen; the Legion of Mary, 1951 | 石鴻禎 confined to his compound more than fifteen years (roll). The Legion of Mary was suppressed first in Tianjin in 1951 and its members made to register and renounce it; deaths not given.[17, 29] |
Henan
| Diocese | Persons | What the record gives |
|---|---|---|
| Kaifeng 開封 | Bishop 梁希生 John Baptist Liang Xisheng; Bishop 高宏效 Joseph Gao Hongxiao, O.F.M.; Coadjutor 宗長風 Antonius Zong Changfeng | 梁希生, hidden bishop, died 23 Sep 2007 at 84. 高宏效, Franciscan, kept hidden, succeeded 2007, died 19 Dec 2022 at 77 in Meixian, Shaanxi. 宗長風, ordained coadjutor 27 Oct 2000, barred by the state from ever taking up the see.[33] |
| Nanyang 南陽 | Bishop 靳德辰 Joseph Jin Dechen | Ordained 1944; arrested 1958 and sentenced to life, released 1973; rearrested December 1981 and sentenced 27 Jul 1982 to fifteen years for resisting abortion and birth control; held at the Third Provincial Prison, Yuzhou; pardoned May 1992 and confined to his village; died 21 Nov 2002 at 83 in freedom.[34] |
| Xinxiang 新鄉 | Bishop 張維柱 Joseph Zhang Weizhu; seven priests and the seminarians of May 2021 | 張維柱 arrested May 2021 (calendar, roll); the seminary closed; the priests and seminarians taken with him, names and fates not given.[17] |
| Northern Henan, 1966 | An unnamed priest | Pushed so close to the Red Guards' fire that his feet burned; carried home, died two days later.[19] |
Zhejiang
| Diocese | Persons | What the record gives |
|---|---|---|
| Wenzhou 溫州 | Bishop 朱維方 Vincent Zhu Weifang; Bishop 邵祝敏 Peter Shao Zhumin; Fr. 蔣孫年 Jiang Sunian | 朱維方 (1927–2016): formed at Zikawei, ordained 6 Oct 1954; arrested November 1955 in the same wave that took the Shanghai Jesuits, held until 1971, then classed as a "four-category element" in his village; rearrested Easter 1982 in the sweep that retook 朱樹德, 朱洪聲, and 朱立德, released 1988 — twenty-two years of a priestly life in camp or prison; built the Wenzhou underground church parish by parish; consecrated in secret 20 Jan 2009, recognized by Rome and, from 2010, by the state; at 87 led his priests to the provincial offices against the cross-demolition campaign; died 7 Sep 2016 in freedom. His successor 邵祝敏 was detained within months (calendar, roll); 蔣孫年 taken with him July 2026 (roll).[40, 16] |
Elsewhere
| Place | Persons | What the record gives |
|---|---|---|
| Chongqing, 1951 | Fr. 董世祉 Dong Shizhi | Arrested after 23 Jun 1951, never heard of again (Section 02).[30] |
| Yangjiaping, 1947–48 | The thirty-three Trappists | Names and days in Jen (1978) and Moreau (2012); the group is entered on 30 Aug (calendar).[8, 10] |
| Beijing, 24 August 1966 | About seventy Chinese and seven foreign Franciscan Missionaries of Mary of the Sacred Heart school; Sr. Molly O'Sullivan | Beaten by Red Guards, tried before a "people's court" the next day, the foreign sisters expelled; Sr. O'Sullivan died the day after reaching Hong Kong.[19] |
| Fenyang, Shanxi, 1955 | Bishop 雷震霞 Lei Zhenxia and priests | Arrested shortly after 27 Sep 1955; the state's own candidate installed 1958; fate of Bishop Lei not given.[35] |
| Yibin, Sichuan | Bishop 陳適中 John Chen Shizhong | Imprisoned in the 1950s and again in the Cultural Revolution; rehabilitated 1981; died 16 Dec 2012 at 94 in freedom.[36] |
| Hanzhong, Shaanxi | Bishop 余成信 Matthias Yu Chengxin; Bishop 余成悌 Bartholomew Yu Chengti | 余成信 sent to a labor camp as a seminarian in the Cultural Revolution, ordained 1981, consecrated 12 Dec 1989 shortly after his brother 余成悌's arrest; died 7 Dec 2017 in freedom.[37] |
References
- "Francis Xavier Ford," Wikipedia, citing the Maryknoll archives and the Diocese of Brooklyn cause documentation — page. Born 11 Jan 1892; died 21 Feb 1952 in a Guangzhou prison; Servant of God. ↑
- "Peter Joseph Fan Xueyan," Wikipedia, citing the Associated Press obituary in The New York Times, 25 Apr 1992 — page. Born 29 Dec 1907; died 13 Apr 1992. ↑
- Laogai Research Foundation, "Fan Xueyan," prisoner profile — page. Detention at the Baoding bishop's residence without warrant or trial; corpse released April 1992. ↑
- "Han Dingxiang," Wikipedia, citing Associated Press reporting of September 2007 — page. Born 17 May 1937; died 9 Sep 2007 in police custody; cremated the same night. ↑
- Bernardo Cervellera, "Beijing hides the body of bishop Cosma Shi Enxiang: too 'dangerous'," AsiaNews, 2015 — article. Arrest 13 Apr 2001; death acknowledged 30 Jan 2015 then retracted; also the cases of Bishop Liu Difen (Anguo, 1992) and the condition of Bishop Fan Xueyan's body. ↑
- "Chinese Bishop Shi Enxiang, 'underground' Church leader imprisoned since 2001, dead at 94," Catholic Culture, February 2015 — article. Notes that his death left one underground bishop (Su Zhimin) still held at an undisclosed location. ↑
- Charles J. McCarthy, S.J., "A Trappist Tragedy" (1947), in Paolino Quattrocchi, Monaci nella Tormenta (Abbaye de Cîteaux, 1991), 136. The first collected account, taken from survivors in Beijing, October 1947; sixteen dead known as of 13 September 2026. ↑
- Stanislaus Jen (Ren Dayi) 任達義, O.C.S.O., 飲水思源:察哈爾懷來縣楊家坪聖母神慰院、聖母神樂院之母院 (Hong Kong, 1978). Survivor's account; source of the dates of the three trials (1, 10, 23 July 1947) and of the individual deaths. ↑
- Anthony E. Clark, "China's Modern Martyrs: From Mao to Now," Part 1, Catholic World Report series, Whitworth University History Faculty Scholarship Paper 37 (2014) — PDF. Synthesis of McCarthy, Jen, Fazzini, Merton, and Moreau on Yangjiaping; the thirty-three; the case of Bishop Ma Daqin. ↑
- Theresa Marie Moreau, Blood of the Martyrs: Trappist Monks in Communist China (Los Angeles: Veritas Est Libertas, 2012); and Gerolamo Fazzini, ed., The Red Book of Chinese Martyrs: Testimonies and Autobiographical Accounts (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 285–310 on Yangjiaping. Also Thomas Merton, The Waters of Siloe (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949), 254–256. ↑
- "Beda Chang," Wikipedia, citing the testimony of Fr. W. Aedan McGrath and Paul P. Mariani, Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011) — page. Died the morning of 11 Nov 1951; body returned 12 Nov; the "bacteria warfare" statement. ↑
- Jean-Paul Wiest and others, The Chinese Catholic Church in Conflict: 1949–2001 (Universal Publishers), 68, on the arrest and death of Fr. Beda Chang. ↑
- "Joseph Fan Zhongliang," Wikipedia — page. Born 18 Dec 1918; ordained 1951; consecrated clandestinely 27 Feb 1985; died 16 Mar 2014 under house arrest in Shanghai. ↑
- Nina Shea, "Don't Forget the Catholic Bishops Persecuted by China," Hudson Institute, October 2024 — article. At least ten Vatican-approved bishops in indefinite detention, disappeared, forced out, or under investigation; Shao Zhumin, Cui Tai, Jia Zhiguo, Zhang Weizhu. ↑
- Human Rights Watch, "China: Pressure on Catholics Escalates," 15 April 2026 — report. Status as of April 2026: Su Zhimin (94) and Xing Wenzhi (63) forcibly disappeared; Cui Tai and Ma Daqin detained or under house arrest; Guo Xijin and Shao Zhumin under house arrest; Zhang Weizhu and Shi Hongzhen now recognized by Beijing. ↑
- "Communist Party removes Bishop Shao Zhumin … again," AsiaNews, 8 July 2026 — article. Bishop Shao and Fr. Jiang Sunian taken to prevent their attending the funeral of Fr. Chen Nailiang; Cui Tai under repeated house arrest; Guo Xijin and Zhang Weizhu forced to political sessions. ↑
- Courtney Mares, "Persecution of 10 Catholic Bishops in China Intensified After Vatican-China Deal, Report Says," Catholic News Agency / National Catholic Register, 21 October 2024 — article. Zhang Weizhu's May 2021 arrest during cancer convalescence; Jia Zhiguo's illness acknowledged by the state as a product of detention; Ma Daqin's confinement since 2012. ↑
- "Julius Jia Zhiguo," Wikipedia, citing UCA News, 30 October 2025 — page. Born 1 May 1935; first imprisoned 1963; ordained priest 7 Jun 1980 and bishop 19 Dec 1980 by Bishop Fan Xueyan; never joined the Patriotic Association; died 29 Oct 2025. ↑
- "The Martyrdom of Catholics in China," World Mission magazine, 2024 — article; drawing on Sergio Ticozzi, P.I.M.E., in Tripod no. 182 (2016). Bishop Xi Minyuan (June 1966); Fr. Wang Shiwei (15 Feb 1970); the 24 Aug 1966 attack on the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Beijing; Sr. Zhang Ergu; the north Beijing priest; Fr. Pedro Yu Heping (8 Nov 2015). The same Ticozzi material is summarized by Human Rights Without Frontiers, reproduced by David Alton, 24 Jul 2021. ↑
- "2005 – John Gao Kexian," Asia Harvest, Shandong resources — page. Death 24 Jan 2005 in Binzhou hospital in custody; cremation the next day under police; the premature September 2004 report; the 1992 secret consecration disclosed after death. ↑
- 「朱樹德」, 維基百科 — page; and Cecilia Ao, 「朱樹德神父小記」, 號角報 O Clarim (Macau), 18 Sep 2015 — article. Born 21 Dec 1913; ordained 19 May 1945; returned to Shanghai 19 Oct 1949; arrested 15 Jun 1953; sentenced 17 Mar 1960; rearrested Nov 1981; died 28 Dec 1983 in Hefei prison; 樹德樓 at Fu Jen. ↑
- Anthony E. Clark, "Chinese Catholics who changed China and the world," Catholic World Report, 16 Jan 2018 — article. Fr. Zhu Shude's 1949 letter from Hong Kong, quoted from Chan and Hunter, Prayers and Thoughts of Chinese Christians (Boston: Cowley, 1991), 22–23. ↑
- Timothy C. Morgan, "China's Underground Bishop Leon Yao Liang dies," Christianity Today, January 2010 — article; "Leon Yao Liang," Wikipedia — page. Died 30 Dec 2009 at 87; labor camp 1956, life sentence 1958, released 1984; consecrated 19 Feb 2002; the three Xuanhua priests who disappeared in June 2009. ↑
- "Francis Zhao Zhensheng," Wikipedia — page. Jesuit bishop of Xianxian; beaten and thrown from a balcony 1967; died in prison 1968. ↑
- "Catholic activist Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong national security trial," Catholic News Agency / National Catholic Register, 9 February 2026 — article. Baptized 1997; arrested 2020; sentenced 9 Feb 2026; Eucharist denied; his daughter's account of his prayer and drawing. ↑
- "Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20-year imprisonment," National Catholic Reporter (OSV News), 9 February 2026 — article. Conviction 15 Dec 2025 by three government-vetted judges; not-guilty plea; aged 78. Also CNN, 9 Feb 2026, on Cardinal Zen leaving the court with Teresa Lai. ↑
- "Profiles of the Persecuted," Global Prayer for China — page. Fr. Lu Genjun, vicar general of Baoding, taken into secret detention 2 Nov 2020 after earlier imprisonment 2006–2014; Bishop Cui Tai's detention of 19 Jun 2020. ↑
- 「陳哲敏」, 維基百科 — page. Matthew Chen (1909 – 26 Aug 1961); Urbaniana doctorate; secretary to Riberi; Central Bureau; Aurora College for Women; arrest 6 Sep 1951; sentence 1960; Huangshan, Digang, Baihu; death on the boat to the farm hospital; burial at Majiashan. ↑
- 「九八敎難(龔品梅反革命集團案)」, 吳語維基百科 — page. The case of Bishop Kung and some 180 clergy, religious, and laity; Fr. 張希斌; the three "unrepentant" priests sentenced to twenty years (張希斌, 陳哲敏, 朱樹德); Fr. 王仁生's arrest 7 Jul 1953, sentence 7 Mar 1960, illness and death at Digang, 20–22 December. ↑
- 「董世祉」, 維基百科 — page. One of the "four talents"; the Chongqing speech of 23 Jun 1951; denounced 1 Jul 1951; arrested and never heard of again. ↑
- 「天主教上海教區」, 維基百科 — page. The arrests of 6 Sep 1951, 15 Jun 1953, and 8 Sep 1955 by name; the sentences of 17 Mar 1960; the 1966 concentration of the Shanghai clergy and sisters at 201 Caoxi North Road. ↑
- "Retired Chinese bishop who spent years in labor camps dies at 98," Catholic Standard (UCA News), 19 Oct 2021 — article. Bishop Stephen Yang Xiangtai of Handan: arrests 1954 and 1966, fifteen-year sentence, camps, release 15 Mar 1980; the secret ordination of Bishop Sun Jigen, 21 Jun 2011, and the arrests that followed. ↑
- "Joseph Gao Hongxiao," Wikipedia — page. The hidden bishops of Kaifeng; Bishop Liang Xisheng d. 23 Sep 2007; Coadjutor Zong Changfeng barred from the see; Bishop Gao d. 19 Dec 2022. ↑
- "Joseph Jin Dechen," Wikipedia — page. Bishop of Nanyang: life sentence 1958, released 1973; fifteen years 1982 for resisting abortion and birth control; pardoned May 1992; died 21 Nov 2002. ↑
- 「高庸 (神父)」, 維基百科 — page. The arrest of Bishop Lei Zhenxia of Fenyang and his priests after 27 Sep 1955 and the state's installation of a replacement. ↑
- "John Chen Shi-zhong," Wikipedia — page. Bishop of Yibin: imprisoned in the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution; died 16 Dec 2012. ↑
- "Matthias Yu Chengxin," Wikipedia — page. Clandestine bishop of Hanzhong; labor camp in the Cultural Revolution; consecrated 12 Dec 1989 after his brother's arrest; died 7 Dec 2017. ↑
- 陸達誠 (Thomas Lu Dacheng), S.J. 「懷念勵德神父」, 恒毅雜誌, 14 June 2014; reproduced at 天主教在線 (ziliaozhan.win). The sentence record of the Shanghai Jesuit network: 陳哲敏, 朱樹德, 張希斌, 朱洪聲, 傅鶴洲, 蔡石方, 朱雪帆, 朱立德, and the closing list "劉季澤、嚴蘊梁、吳應楓、沈百順、陸達源、傅玉堂等神父 … 此名單不完整." ↑
- William H. Chuang, research notes on the Shanghai Catholic network, compiled on the author's About page (logarcheon.com): 朱洪聲's 1955 arrest date and 1993 annulment; 朱者赤; 朱菊初; supplementary particulars for 朱立德 and 朱維方. Author's records; citations for 朱者赤 and 朱菊初 pending. ↑
- 「朱維方」, 維基百科 — page; 百度百科 「朱維方」. Born 10 Dec 1927, Yongjia; ordained 6 Oct 1954 at Xujiahui; imprisoned 1955–71 and 1982–88; consecrated 20 Jan 2009; died 7 Sep 2016. ↑