SHEN JIHE, ST.

Lay martyr, servant, member of the Third Order of St. Francis; b. 1851, Ankeo, Hughan Xian, Shanxi Province, China; d. July 9, 1900, Taiyüan, Shanxi Province. Thomas Shen Jihe (sometimes written as Sen or Sen-Ki-Kuo), the son of Peter Shen Buniu and Maria Guo, was raised as a Catholic. He was footman to Paul Zhang and went with him to Dongergou (1875), where he served Fr. Peter Jiang. For the final decade of his life, Thomas was a servant in the household of Bp. Gregorio grassi. Thomas was among the innumerable Christians martyred during the Boxer Rebellion and among the several dozen trapped inside the Taiyüan cathedral, arrested, and beheaded several days thereafter. 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.

Bibliography: l. m. balconi, Le Martiri di Taiyuen (Milan 1945). Acta Apostolica Sedis 47 (1955) 381–388. Vita del b. A. Crescitelli (Milan 1950). m. t. de blarer, Les Bse Marie Hermine de Jésus et ses compagnes, franciscaines missionnaires de Marie, massacrées le 9 juillet 1900 à Tai–Yuan–Fou, Chine (Paris 1947). Les Vingt–neuf martyrs de Chine, massacrés en 1900, béatifiés par Sa Sainteté Pie XII, le 24 novembre, 1946 (Rome 1946). 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]