中文 | Русский | Kitajskij Blagovestnik (1935 edition)

Accounts of the Martyrs of the Chinese Orthodox Church
who fell victim in Beijing in 1900

English translation by Nina Tkachuk Dimas
Part I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX

Christians slaughtered in the village of Dōngdìngān (东定安)

ALEXEI Zhang, 48 yrs. He, like his father Daniel, in whose time the Dōngdìngān church was constructed, lived at the church as a caretaker. When the Boxer unrests began during the 5th month, he found courage and did not hasten to hide. When the church was burnt on the 11th of the 6th month, Alexei with all his family went to Beijing. His family consisted of: his wife Evfimia, 44 and his children: Evdokia, 11; Nikita, 10, Michael, 6; Maria, 1. Having arrived in Beijing and having seen the ashes of the destroyed Mission, Alexei departed for the northern mountains; but local inhabitants did not accept him, and only one family sheltered his elder daughter as their son's future bride. Alexei and the rest of his family returned to Dōngdìngān , where he was soon seized by the Boxers and together with his two boys was killed at a place called Sānjiǎo Kēng (三角坑, Triangular Pit), near a road to the west of the Mission site. Alexei's wife and younger daughter were martyred in a field on the northern side of the village of Maozhuang.

STEFAN Wang Yuguang, 61. After the Boxers burned the church, Stefan hid for two weeks in the fields, was later turned in by malicious people and died together with Alexei.

KIR Zhin Fucheng, 60. Kir's house was burned at the same time as the church. Then Kir and his family hid in the village of Maozhuang. When the Boxer's found Kir there, his sons were with him. The older one, Basil, escaped through a wall, but the younger one, John, was sick with fever and was killed by the Boxers together with his father. Kir's wife Paraskeva, with her grandson Herman, John's son, was in the field and escaped death. Basil's wife with three children -- she herself and the children -- all unbaptized -- fled to Báizhuāng (白庄) after the church was burned and hid in a bog, and the next day was killed there. She with the children can be considered as having been baptized by fire. Later her body and the bodies of her children were removed from the bog and buried by relatives.

IRINA, 55, was Paul Zhang Yu's stepmother. In that year of the Boxer rebellion, Irina had just been baptized in the 4th month. At that time, the Boxer unrests had already begun and many rebuked Irina for being baptized. Later she was killed by the Boxers near the village of Dōngdìngān .