A sixty-year-old layman from southeastern Zhili province killed at Xiaotun during the Boxer Uprising of 1900, canonized among the 120 Martyrs of China.

Paulus Ge Tingzhu was a layman of southeastern Zhili, in present-day Hebei province, China, killed at Xiaotun in Shenzhou on August 8, 1900, during the anti-Christian violence of the Boxer Uprising, at about sixty years of age. Pope Pius XII beatified him in 1955, and Pope John Paul II canonized him in 2000 among the 120 Martyr Saints of China.

Quick Facts

• Born: c. 1840, Zhili (present-day Hebei), China
• Died: August 8, 1900, Xiaotun, Shenzhou, Hebei, China
• Feast Day: July 9 (with the 120 Martyr Saints of China)
• Venerated as: Layman and martyr

Who Was Saint Paulus Ge Tingzhu?

Paulus Ge Tingzhu was a layman of southeastern Zhili province, killed at Xiaotun in Shenzhou on August 8, 1900, at about sixty years of age, well into the older years of life by the standards of his time. His death came in the closing weeks of the Boxer Uprising’s worst violence against Chinese Catholics that summer, and beyond his age, place, and regional identity, no further personal detail of his life survives.

Historical Setting

The village of Xiaotun in Shenzhou, Hebei, lay within one of the areas hit hardest by the Boxer Uprising’s anti-Christian campaign in the summer of 1900, a movement that blamed foreign missionaries and their Chinese converts for the era’s political and economic troubles. Thousands of Chinese Catholics across Hebei and neighboring provinces were killed within a few months, and Ge Tingzhu’s death in early August fell near the height of this violence, shortly before international intervention brought it to an end.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Paulus Ge Tingzhu

As an older layman rather than a priest or seminarian, Paulus Ge Tingzhu represents the ordinary Chinese Catholic laity who bore the heaviest numerical toll of the Boxer Uprising’s violence, far outnumbering the missionary clergy who also died in 1900. The Church remembers him alongside dozens of other lay believers from the same province and the same terrible summer, honoring the depth of conviction found among ordinary rural Catholics rather than only among clergy and religious.

Canonization and Feast Day

Like many of his fellow Chinese martyrs from 1900, Ge Tingzhu was beatified by Pius XII in 1955 and canonized by John Paul II in 2000 as part of the 120 Martyr Saints of China, whose shared feast falls on July 9 rather than on the individual date of his death.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Ge Tingzhu’s death at sixty, after a long life within his local community, is a reminder that martyrdom in 1900 China claimed people across every stage of life, not only the young or the ordained. His example honors the quiet, lifelong fidelity of an older layman whose faith, tested only at the very end, held firm regardless.

A Prayer to Saint Paulus Ge Tingzhu

Saint Paulus Ge Tingzhu, layman who kept the faith through a long life and gave it fully in your final hour, pray for the elderly faithful of the Church today. Help all who have served God quietly for many years to remain steadfast to the very end. Amen.

Sources

• Roman Martyrology, entry for the Martyrs of China
• Vatican.va, canonization records for the 120 Martyr Saints of China (October 1, 2000)