A young Chinese Catholic laywoman killed in 1900 during the Boxer Uprising, canonized in 2000 among the 120 Martyrs of China.

Saint Teresia Chen Qingjieh was a Catholic laywoman of the Ningjing district in southeastern Zhili, in present-day Hebei province, China, killed on July 5, 1900, at about twenty-four years old, during the violent anti-Christian upheaval of the Boxer Uprising. She was beatified in 1955 among the Martyrs of China recognized by Pope Pius XII, and canonized in 2000 by Pope John Paul II as part of the larger group of 120 Martyrs of China, most of them, like her, ordinary lay believers rather than clergy or missionaries.

Quick Facts

• Died: July 5, 1900 (Cao, Ningjing, Hebei, China, aged about 24)
• Beatified: 1955
• Canonized: 2000
• Venerated as: Lay martyr, one of the 120 Martyrs of China

Who Was Saint Teresia Chen Qingjieh?

Teresia Chen Qingjieh lived as an ordinary Catholic laywoman in the village of Cao in the Ningjing district of southeastern Zhili province, before being killed in the summer of 1900 in the violence that swept northern China during the Boxer Uprising. The record preserves her age, place, and the fact of her martyrdom, situating her firmly within a documented historical crisis rather than in legend or uncertain antiquity.

Historical Setting

The Boxer Uprising of 1900 targeted foreign missionaries and Chinese Catholic converts alike across northern China, driven by a movement that blamed Christianity for foreign intrusion into Chinese affairs. Over the course of a few violent months, thousands of Christians, the overwhelming majority of them ordinary lay Chinese Catholics rather than foreign clergy, were killed for refusing to renounce their faith.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Teresia Chen Qingjieh

The Church remembers Teresia Chen Qingjieh as one of the named victims of a persecution that claimed a great number of largely unrecorded lay believers, standing for the many ordinary Catholics of Zhili province whose deaths that summer might otherwise have gone unmarked.

Canonization and Feast Day

She was beatified in 1955 by Pope Pius XII among an earlier group of Chinese martyrs, and canonized in 2000 by Pope John Paul II within the wider canonization of 120 Martyrs of China, both clearly documented modern processes.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Her death is a reminder that the cost of the faith in the modern era has fallen heavily on ordinary lay Catholics, not only on missionaries or clergy, and that entire village communities in places like Zhili province paid that cost together.

A Prayer to Saint Teresia Chen Qingjieh

Saint Teresia Chen Qingjieh, young laywoman of Ningjing who did not renounce Christ even under violent threat, intercede for the Catholic people of China, past and present. Give courage to every ordinary believer tested for their faith today. Amen.

Sources

• Vatican.va (canonization of the 120 Martyrs of China, 2000)
• EWTN
• Roman Martyrology