Hard times indeed were those of the late terrible trouble for the Orthodox Christians in China. The native flock was not numerous. The Orthodox prelates in China never made it their special object to achieve a rapid increase in the number of their native converts; but it has been the unanimous opinion of all that the Chinese greatly incline towards Christianity and that the grace of God has not passed by this people. The chief of our mission in Beijing, the Archimandrite Innocentius, has sent a report on the sufferings endured by the Orthodox Chinese. In his letter he says among other things:
"Any one who knows under what conditions the Orthodox work was carried on in China will not condemn the poor, neglected native Orthodox community. On the contrary, to it may be applied the words of Scripture on the spirit of Christ: "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets" (Matth. XII, 18-19).
"In the midst of the darkness of paganism, not only did the Orthodox community, weak and helpless as it was, preserve its faith in Christ, but it put forth true confessors of Christ during the last days of cruel ordeal.
"The chief day of martyrdom for the Orthodox natives in Beijing was the 11th day of June 1900. Proclamations had been posted, day before the calling on the heathens to massacre the Christians and threatening with death any one who dared to give them shelter. During the night from the 11th to the 12th of June Boxers with lighted torches appeared in all the quarters of Beijing, assaulted the Christian dwellings, seized the hapless inmates and tortured them, urging them to deny Christ. Many, terrified by torments and the prospect of death, did so, to save their lives, and burned incense before idols. But others, undaunted by torture, courageously confessed Christ.
"The fate of these martyrs was horrible: they were disembowelled, beheaded, burned in their houses. The search for Christians and the massacres continued through all the succeeding days of the mutiny. After their dwelling had been destroyed, they were taken outside the city gates into the Boxers' heathen temples, and there they were subjected to an interrogatory, then burned alive at the stake. We have it from eye-witnesses, heathens themselves, that many of the Orthodox Chinese met death with wonderful courage.
"Paul Wang, an Orthodox catechizer, died with a prayer on his lips. A woman teacher of the Mission was tortured twice. The Boxers first cut and slashed her and, leaving her for dead, half covered her with earth. When she recovered consciousness, her moans were heard by the guard (a heathen), and he carried her to his sentry-box. But after a while the Boxers again seized her and this time did her to death. On both occasions she joyfully confessed Christ before her tormentors. After the horrors of the first night some peaceable Chinese found an eight-year-old boy, Ivan Ji, the son of a priest who had been killed, dreadfully mutilated by the Boxers, both his hands had been cut off, and there were wounds on his breast. When asked if it hurt very much, he smilingly replied that suffering for Christ did not hurt. This child-martyr was again seized by the Boxers who cut off his head and burned his body."
"In the mission alms-house 17 aged widows and young children suffered for the faith. The mission and all its buildings, with all the property therein contained, were destroyed, razed to the ground, the cemetery was dug up and the bones were cast out of the graves. In other localities—Kalgan, Donding'an, Beidahe,—the Orthodox churches and mission houses were demolished to their foundations.
"Such are the losses suffered by the Orthodox Church in China. Yet the Orthodox community was absolutely guiltless of causing the Boxer movement.
There is no doubt that the conduct of the Europeans could not but arouse the natives' ire, for the foreigners treat them as slaves and violate all their rights in their own country. But the Orthodox community had no share in this, and in former times it was never molested in any riot. Only this once anger against Russia, aroused by various political circumstances, visited the innocuous Orthodox Christians with a terrible and undeserved vengeance".
