An-Xing, Anna, and Companions, Ss.
AN-XING, ANNA, AND COMPANIONS, SS.
Female lay martyrs; b. Anping County, Hebei (Hopeh) Province; d. Hebei Province, China, July 11, 1900. This subgrouping of the Martyrs of China incorporates three generations of the An family: The matriarch Anna An-Xing (also called An Hsin-shih, An Hsin-shih, Nan-Sinn-Cheu, or Nan-Sinn-Cheu; b. 1828); her daughter-in-law Mary An-Guo (also called An-Keo or NanKouo-Cheu; b. 1836); her granddaughter Mary An Linghua (also called Nan Ling-Hoa, b. 1871); and her grandson's wife Anna An-Jiao (also called Nan-Tsiao-Cheu, Cheu, b. 1874). They were arrested by the Boxers as they sought refuge from the persecutions, and were killed outside the village for refusing to apostatize. 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, Eng. Ed. 40 (2000): 1–2, 10.
[k. i. rabenstein]