BAUER, ANDRÉ, ST.

Franciscan brother, martyr, b. Nov. 24, 1866, Guebwiller, Alsace, France; d. July 9, 1900, Taiyüan, Shansi Province, China. André was the sixth of the eight children of Luc Bauer and Lucia Moser. He joined the Franciscan Third Order as a teenager. On Aug. 12, 1886, he was clothed as a Franciscan oblate in Clevedon, England. Recalled to France, he completed his mandatory three years of military service in the Cuirassiers Regiment, then he returned home for a time to aid his aging parents. In 1895, he received the Franciscan habit at Amiens before returning to the friary in England. On May 4, 1899, he arrived at the mission in Taiyüan, where he served in the infirmary until he was captured and decapitated by the Boxers 14 months later. En route to his execution, his joy was expressed by his chanting: "Praise the Lord, all you nations!" (Ps. 117). He was beatified by Pope Pius XII (Nov. 24, 1946) and canonized (Oct. 1, 2000) by Pope John Paul II with Augustine Zhao Rong and companions.

Feast: July 4; July 8 (Franciscans).

Bibliography: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 39 (1947) 213–221, 307–311. Les Vingt-neuf martyrs de Chine, massacrés en 1900, béatifiés par Sa Sainteté Pie XII, le 24 novembre, 1946 (Rome 1946). p. x. mertens, Du sang chrétien sur le fleuve jaune. Actes de martyrs dans la Chine contemporaine (Paris 1937). 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, Eng. Ed. 40 (2000): 1–2, 10.

[k. i. rabenstein]