(d.1648-1930) 87 Chinese Catholics and 33 western missionaries, nine years old to 72, all martyred in China between 1648 and 1930, are recognized on this day. Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who became a priest and was martyred in 1815. Many of these heroic individuals were killed during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901). Though they died in different eras and were beatified in separate groupings, Pope Saint John Paul II canonized them together in 2000.

All of these saints chose to witness to the truth. Recovery is about truth. Every Step is about honesty, integrity, and seeing things as they really are. What is your relationship to truth in your recovery?

“Young Ann Wang, a 14-year-old, withstood the threats of the torturers who invited her to apostatize. Ready for her beheading, she declared with a radiant face: ‘The door of heaven is open to all’, three times murmuring: ‘Jesus’. And 18-year-old Chi Zhuzi, cried out fearlessly to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: ‘Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian’” (Pope Saint John Paul II, canonization homily on October 1st, 2000).

Reflection by Brad Farmer