Zhao, Mary, Mary, and Rosa, Ss.
ZHAO, MARY, MARY, AND ROSA, SS.
Lay martyrs, b. Zhaojiacun, Wuchiao County, Hebei (Hopeh) Province, China; d. there, July 28, 1900. Mary Zhao Guo (also given as Chao Kuo-shih, Zhao-Guo, or Tchao-Kouo-Cheu, b. 1840) and her virgin daughters Rose (catechist, b. 1878) and Mary (b. 1883) were unsuccessful in evading the pursuing Boxers by jumping into a well. Rose responded to their captors' demand for apostasy: "We have already resolved that we would rather die than deny our faith," then led her family in prayer. At Rose's request, the three were decapitated in the Zhao family cemetery and their heads burned. They were among the 2,072 killed between June and August 1900 whose causes were submitted to the Vatican of which 56 were beatified by Pope Pius XII (April 17, 1955) and canonized (Oct. 1, 2000) by Pope John Paul II with Augustine Zhao Rong and companions.
Feast: July 20.
Bibliography: l. miner, China's Book of Martyrs: A Record of Heroic Martyrdoms and Marvelous Deliverances of Chinese Christians during the Summer of 1900 (Ann Arbor 1994). j. simon, Sous le sabre des Boxers (Lille 1955). c. testore, Sangue e palme sul fiume giallo. I beati martiri cinesi nella persecuzione della Boxe Celi Sud-Est, 1900 (Rome 1955). L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition 40 (2000): 1–2, 10.
[k. i. rabenstein]