A fifteen-year-old Secular Franciscan seminarian, the youngest of the Taiyuan martyrs of 9 July 1900.

Just fifteen years old, Ioannes Wang Rui was among the youngest killed when the governor of Shanxi ordered the Taiyuan mission’s seminarians and clergy executed together on 9 July 1900. This Secular Franciscan seminarian is one of the 120 Martyrs of China canonized in 2000.

Quick Facts

• Died: 9 July 1900, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China (age 15)
• Feast Day: 9 July (with the 120 Martyrs of China)
• Beatified: 1946
• Canonized: 1 October 2000

Who Was Saint Ioannes Wang Rui?

At fifteen, Wang Rui was likely one of the youngest students gathered at the Taiyuan mission’s seminary formation program, already professed in the Secular Franciscan order even before his teenage years had run their full course.

Historical Setting

Few incidents of the 1900 Boxer Uprising were as concentrated as the Taiyuan Massacre: on 9 July, the governor Yuxian had the entire Catholic mission community of Shanxi’s capital, bishop and seminarians alike, put to death together.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Ioannes Wang Rui

The Church remembers Wang Rui as one of the very youngest to die at Taiyuan, a boy whose formation in the faith had scarcely begun in years but had already gone deep enough that he did not turn from it when the mission was surrounded.

Canonization and Feast Day

At fifteen the youngest to die at Taiyuan, Wang Rui was beatified in 1946 with his companions and, on 1 October 2000, canonized among the 120 Martyrs of China, whose feast day, 9 July, is also the date of his own martyrdom.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Fifteen is an age most would consider too young to be tested this severely. Wang Rui’s witness challenges any assumption that real fidelity has a minimum age, and asks whether the young in the Church today are being formed with anything like that same depth.

A Prayer to Saint Ioannes Wang Rui

Saint Ioannes Wang Rui, youngest of the Taiyuan martyrs, pray for the young people of the Church, that their faith may run as deep as yours did at fifteen. Amen.

Sources

• Butler’s Lives of the Saints, revised edition, entry for the Martyrs of China
• Vatican.va, canonization homily of Pope John Paul II, 1 October 2000
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, background on the 1900 Taiyuan Massacre