Some one has to stop the arrogance of the china guy!!!.. STUDY CAREFULLY!!!.. The Holy Martyrs and Confessors of China Radiant Witnesses in Times of Trial Past, Present, and Unbroken.. and the unyielding witnesses of our era under President Xi Jinping compose an indivisible legion of fortitude. Modes of affliction transmute

 

the Holy New Martyrs of China (Boxer antiChrist Prosecution Rebellion, 1900)

..and the unyielding witnesses of our era under President Xi Jinping compose an indivisible legion of fortitude. Modes of affliction transmute..

Hieromartyr Metrophanes Chi Sung (and Family)

Fr. Metrophanes (the protomartyr and first Chinese Orthodox priest) is the most frequently depicted individually, often with his wife Tatiana, sons Isaiah and young John (Ioann), and Isaiah's fiancée Maria. Some icons draw from a known pre-martyrdom photo of him.

Here are prominent examples:

These show him in priestly vestments, sometimes with his family, emphasizing their shared suffering (e.g., the child John's endurance despite mutilation).

The Holy Martyrs and Confessors of China Radiant Witnesses in Times of Trial Past, Present, and Unbroken

..and the unyielding witnesses of our era under President Xi Jinping compose an indivisible legion of fortitude. Modes of affliction transmute..

In the sacred and timeless tradition of the ancient Synaxarion, whereby the Holy Ecclesia perpetuates the immortal memory of those who have valiantly borne witness to Christ amid torment and death, we now proclaim with reverent awe and profound gratitude the remembrance of the holy martyrs and confessors who have gloriously shone forth across the boundless expanse of the Middle Kingdom. From the dawn when the first faint rays of the Gospel pierced the ancient veil of China—through the quiet labors of early heralds in distant eras, the steadfast preaching of later centuries, and the enduring witness of generations—to the present hour, these courageous souls, both those who came from afar and the native-born faithful, have endured exile, mockery, imprisonment, and cruel death for the sake of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Their precious blood and unyielding tears have irrigated the soil of the Church, yielding a harvest of grace that instructs every generation in the unconquerable strength of humility, boundless forgiveness, patient suffering, and exultant hope amid the most savage tempests of persecution.

More than a century ago, in the fateful years of 1899 to 1901, under the reign of the Guangxu Emperor and the iron sway of the Empress Dowager Cixi, a ferocious uprising erupted, etched in history as the Boxer Rebellion. The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, enflamed by xenophobia and viewing the Christian faith as a deadly poison corrupting ancestral ways, surged forth in righteous wrath. Bolstered by imperial tacit approval and decrees from exalted quarters, they unleashed hordes wielding swords, spears, torches, and unbridled fury upon all who bore the name of Christ. Edicts and placards screamed for the extermination of believers; places of worship were reduced to ashes, dwellings looted, and whole villages scoured for the faithful.

In those days of unrestrained slaughter, thousands upon thousands were hunted down and subjected to horrors beyond recounting. In Beijing alone, on the fateful night of June 10–11, 1900, the mission compound fell under siege: its leader and over two hundred Chinese faithful were martyred in a frenzy of blades and flames. Some were decapitated before the holy icons they cherished; others pierced with countless wounds, scorched alive in their homes, or cast into pits while yet drawing breath. Families gathered in desperate prayer; catechists shielded their charges; maidens of tender years and elders bent with age stood resolute, refusing to renounce their Savior even as fire consumed their bodies. Mothers clasped babes to their hearts as death descended; ministers of the altar offered consolation amid the inferno. With voices echoing the Crucified One, they cried, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and yielded their spirits in serene communion with Christ. Thus was the Church in China baptized anew in martyr's blood, and from those scattered seeds arose hidden blossoms of faith that endured through the long night of subsequent trials.

Yet the ancient foe rests not, and in our present age, under the firm guidance of President Xi Jinping, subtler yet no less grievous afflictions have descended upon those who aspire to worship Christ in purity of heart, unbound by earthly mandates. The doctrine of Sinicization, proclaimed with renewed vigor since 2016 and accelerated in recent years—even unto the Politburo's solemn deliberations in September 2025—insists that every expression of faith must fully conform to socialist principles with Chinese characteristics, subordinating divine allegiance to the imperatives of the state. Unregistered assemblies, where the faithful convene in quiet homes and secluded venues as did the primitive Church, encounter unremitting surveillance, abrupt incursions, and methodical suppression.

Dwellings were breached under cover of darkness; sacred gatherings disrupted; possessions confiscated; kin torn asunder.

The tempest raged onward. In mid-December 2025, authorities deployed over a thousand officers, including SWAT contingents and riot squads, in a prolonged operation targeting networks in Taishun County's Yayang Town. Hundreds were wrested from homes and meetings; pivotal guides branded as ringleaders of illicit societies; sanctuaries sealed against all approach. Tensions over compulsory state emblems, intrusive cameras, and compulsory ideological infusion ignited the assault, as the steadfast resisted the compulsory fusion of secular dogma into hallowed precincts.

Throughout the realm, venerable symbols are wrenched from edifices—even those registered—supplanted by banners and likenesses magnifying the leadership. Sacred instructions are vetted or recast to laud socialist excellences and fealty to the Party; ancient hymns reshaped to extol temporal powers; digital heralds of the Good News prohibited; convocations scrutinized via lenses, facial algorithms, and informers. Approved gatherings bear mandates to weave official ideology into doctrine, while autonomous ones hazard detention, penalties, severance from loved ones, vocational ruin, and incessant coercion to forsake untrammeled devotion to Christ. In this epoch of marvels technological and professed concord, the oppression is meticulous and omnipresent: virtual obliteration of ministries, sequestration of resources, prohibitions on movement, and unrelenting psychic assault to compel abandonment of sovereign faith.

Attestations from manifold sources—human rights guardians, global overseers, banished shepherds, and subterranean witnesses—affirm that 2025 has borne witness to one of the fiercest intensifications in decades, afflicting tens of millions who adore beyond complete state dominion. From metropolitan scholars to rustic tillers, the faithful probe the abysses of conscience amid refined despotism.

Thus the martyrs of the Boxer cataclysm under Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, the confessors of mid-century upheavals, and the unyielding witnesses of our era under President Xi Jinping compose an indivisible legion of fortitude. Modes of affliction transmute—from barbarous steel and conflagration to calibrated confinement, omnipresent vigilance, and doctrinal compulsion—yet the antagonism toward Christ's effulgent light persists unchanging. And evermore doth heavenly grace superabound, buttressing the frail, proliferating the Ecclesia in concealed refuges, and vowing that the gates of Hades shall never overpower her.

O Holy martyrs and Confessors of China, of yesteryear and today, intercede ceaselessly before the Throne of our God and Lord Jesus Christ for us sinners, that we may partake of your valor, persevere in your hope, and attain your everlasting crowns of Martyr Glory! Amen.

The Orthodox Martyrs and Confessors of China recognized by the Orthodox Ecclesia are almost exclusively the group known as the Holy New Martyrs of China (or the 222 Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion / Yihetuan Uprising). These were native Chinese Orthodox Christians who were killed in Beijing (Peking) during the anti-foreign, antiChrist Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

They refused to renounce their Orthodox Christian faith when commanded by the Boxers (a peasant rebel movement supported by parts of the Qing government) to apostatize, burn incense to idols, or deny Christ. They faced brutal tortures and execution. Methods included beheading, dismemberment, disembowelment, burning alive at stakes in heathen temples, strangling, and other atrocities.

222 Holy Martyrs (those killed) or Confessors (those who suffered persecution for the faith, even if they survived initially).

The group was glorified (canonized) locally in 1902 for veneration in China (commemoration on June 10-11 / 23-24 Old/New Calendar). Church-wide veneration was later affirmed: by ROCOR in 1997, and fully in 2016 (commemorated on June 10/23).

Their feast day is generally June 11 (or June 10/23 depending on jurisdiction/calendar), with the main day of martyrdom being June 11, 1900 (some deaths occurred from early June onward, peaking around June 10-12).

While the full list of 222 names is not publicly detailed in most sources (many are known only to God), several prominent ones are highlighted in Orthodox hagiography, including the protomartyr and his family, teachers, and others. Here are the most frequently documented:

Prominent Martyrs Among the 222 Holy New Martyrs of China (1900)

Hieromartyr Metrophanes (Metrophan) Chi Sung, also known as Chang Tzi-tzung, served as the first Chinese Orthodox priest, ordained by Saint Nicholas of Japan. Born in 1855, he was killed on June 10, 1900. Boxers surrounded his home where approximately seventy Christians, including women and children, had sought refuge. He was stabbed and punctured in the chest with spears while sitting in his courtyard and died under a date tree. His body was later reverently buried under the altar of the Church of All Holy Martyrs, built in 1906 but now destroyed.

Tatiana, wife of Father Metrophanes, initially escaped on June 11, 1900, but was captured the next morning, June 12, with nineteen others, taken to the Boxer camp at Xiaoyingfang, and beheaded.

Isaiah, eldest son of Father Metrophanes, had served twenty-three years in the military and was beheaded on June 7, 1900.

Ioann (John), youngest son of Father Metrophanes at age eight, was tortured on June 10, 1900, with shoulders slashed and nose, ears, and toes chopped off. He was hidden briefly but died shortly after from his wounds.

Maria, fiancée of Isaiah, chose to stay and die with the family rather than flee and was martyred with them.

Ia the Teacher, head teacher at the Orthodox Mission School and known as "Ia the Twice-Martyred," was tortured on June 10, 1900, slashed and beaten near death, then buried alive. Rescued by a sympathizer and nursed back to health, she was recaptured and tortured to death with the Name of Christ on her lips.

Paul Wang, also known as Paul Wan, a catechist, submitted to martyrdom with prayer on his lips around June 11.

Other named individuals include Clement Kui Lin (Kui-Kin), Matthew Chai Tsuang (Hai-Tsuan) and his brother Vitus (Witt Zhai Zuang), and Anna Chui (Zhui).

Many others, men, women, children, and elderly widows, were killed in groups, burned in temples outside city gates, disemboweled, or otherwise executed after refusing to apostatize.

Their relics, some incorrupt, were placed in a dedicated church in Beijing, destroyed in the mid-twentieth century with current status unknown.

These martyrs are celebrated as shining examples of steadfast faith in a pagan land, watering the Chinese Orthodox Church with their blood. Their troparion hymn praises them as having hallowed China with their blood and calls for prayers to enlighten the land with Orthodoxy.

Official and Primary Sources on the 1900 Holy New Martyrs of China (Boxer Rebellion)

These sources come primarily from the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR), mission archives, and eyewitness accounts. The group was locally venerated from 1902 by Holy Synod decree number 2874 on April 22, 1902, affirmed church-wide by ROCOR in 1997, and fully by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2016 at the Bishops' Council February 2-3, 2016, setting commemoration on June 10/23.

Primary Eyewitness and Mission Reports Archimandrite Innocent (Figurovsky) compiled the list of 222 names from testimonies of relatives, neighbors, and witnesses in 1901. He provided detailed accounts of the martyrdoms, including Father Metrophanes Chi Sung's death under a date tree on June 10, 1900, published in mission reports and journals such as Izvestija Bratstva in 1904 and Ecclesiastical Truth in 1901. "Accounts of the Martyrs of the Chinese Orthodox Church" from 1906 and 1917, reprinted 2000, forms the official mission compilation of individual lives and circumstances.

Liturgical and Hagiographical Texts Akathist to the Chinese Martyr Saints of the Boxer Rebellion composed in 2000 by Reverend Geoffrey Korz. Troparion and Kontakion to the 222 Martyrs, for example by Reader Isaac E Lambertsen in 2009 and Father John Bartholomew in 2012. Synaxarion of the Chinese Orthodox Martyrs produced by Apostoliki Diakonia in Athens, Greece.

Church Websites and Encyclopedic Entries orthodox.cn from the Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of China offers a comprehensive page on the Holy New Martyrs, including history, lives, icons, and liturgical texts. OrthodoxWiki features the "Martyrs of China" entry with details on Father Metrophanes, his family, and others. OCA.org from the Orthodox Church in America includes the Lives of Saints entry for Hieromartyr Metrophanes (Chang Tzi-tzung) and the martyrs. OrthoChristian.com presents "A Church Built on the Blood of Martyrs" by Father Dionysy Pozdnayev as an eyewitness-based narrative.

Books and Scholarly Works "The Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion" by Father Geoffrey Korz published in AGAIN magazine in 2000. L A Afonina's "Chinese Orthodox Martyrs of 1900: Survey of Historical Sources and Ecclesia Veneration" in IJSWS in 2018.

Current Official and Governmental Sources (U.S. and International)

These provide authoritative assessments and recommendations, often labeling China a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for severe religious freedom violations.

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 2025 Annual Report on China released March 2025 details systematic violations, including Sinicization as coercive subordination of religion to CCP ideology, mass arrests, surveillance, and imprisonment, and recommends redesignating China as CPC. Factsheet "Sinicization of Religion: China’s Coercive Religious Policy" from September 2025 explains how Xi's policy integrates CCP propaganda into doctrines, alters worship sites, and criminalizes non-compliant activities. Factsheet "China’s Persecution of Christians" from 2025 covers imprisonment, forced disappearance, and torture.

U.S. Department of State Press Statement from October 12, 2025 condemns arrests and highlights hostility against Christians.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Report "China: Nationwide Crackdown" from October 14, 2025 covers October 10-11, 2025 arrests of nearly thirty across seven cities and ties it to Xi's Sinicization push and new online religious content bans.

Advocacy and Christian Rights Organizations

These groups provide on-the-ground monitoring, eyewitness accounts, and detailed case documentation.

ChinaAid led by Bob Fu Multiple reports on the Yayang Town and Taishun County raid in Zhejiang Province December 13-18, 2025 describe mobilization of over one thousand officers including SWAT, riot police, and firefighters to storm house churches, with hundreds detained or questioned and people arrested as criminal gang suspects. Coverage of arrests from October 2025 onward details detentions, charges such as illegal use of information networks, and resistance to flag and camera installations.

International Christian Concern (ICC) and Bitter Winter Reports on intensified Sinicization after the September 2025 Politburo session highlight Xi's call for strict enforcement and acceleration of policy, including forced ideological integration in sermons and hymns.

Western Media and Analytical Reports

These offer investigative journalism and context on 2025 events.

The Guardian article from December 23, 2025 on the crackdown includes interviews with families and describes it as the biggest since 2018, linked to the Xi-chaired Politburo meeting urging Sinicization.

Reuters reports from October 13 and November 19, 2025 cover dozens detained with eighteen formally arrested by November, potential three-year sentences, and ties to online ministry restrictions.

Tablet Magazine article from October 28, 2025 provides in-depth coverage of the crackdown as escalation under Xi and describes Sinicization as forcing churches to rewrite Scripture and display Xi portraits!!!

The Conversation, AsiaNews, and Eurasia Review offer analyses of the September 29, 2025 CCP Politburo session where Xi presided over "Systematically Advancing the Sinicization of Religions," calling it inevitable and urging adaptation to socialism.