Assessing the Martyrdom of a Chinese Missionary

CHINA. MARTYRDOM. [BENEDICT XIV]

[Drop title] Allocutio SSmi. Dni. Nostri BENEDICTI PP. XIV. habita in Consistorio Secreto die 16. Septemb. 1748. De pretiosa morte Petri Martyris ex Ordine Praedicatorum, Episcopi Mauricastrensis, Vicarii Apostolici Provinciae Fo-Kiensis in Regno Sinensi.

[Rome?]: No printer [Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide?], undated but presumably, 1748.

Price: $4,500.00

Folio: 27.4 x 20.2 cm. [4] pp.

Bound in early 20th c. half morocco and cloth over boards (upper board sunned and with a slim, vertical stain); A very good copy on thick paper, with light old horizontal fold lines, paper a little toned, and slim, very light damp-stain in the margin. I have not traced another copy of this edition. The Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide printed a dated edition in 1748. No copies of either edition traced in North America. An edition printed in Gerona (1748) is held at the Newberry. I have not traced any of the three editions in Cordier, Sinica.

A papal allocution, delivered by Pope Benedict XIV in a secret consistory on 16 September 1748, on the martyrdom of the Bishop of Mauricastra, the Aragonese Dominican Pedro Mártir Sanz, in China the previous year. Sanz was one of the Dominican missionaries in Fu-kien, China, who were persecuted during the reign of the Emperor K’ien Lung. Along with four other Dominicans – Juan Alcober, Francisco Serrano, Francisco Diaz, and Joachim Royo – Sanz was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death. He was martyred on 26 May 1747 (and was beatified by Leo XIII on 14 May 1893.) The text notes that, at the time this allocution was composed, the four other Dominicans were imprisoned in China awaiting execution.

The particulars of Sanz’ ordeal are drawn “from letters recently arrived from the Kingdom of China” written by an unnamed eyewitness priest. They include an account of his attempts to conceal himself, his eventual capture, his trial, the abuses that he suffered at the hands of his captors, his journey -battered and bloody- from prison to his place of execution with a sign hung around his neck announcing his sentence (“namely, that his head was to be cut off by the hand of the executioner as an example to others, because he had deceived very many by his lies”), his beheading, the reactions of the crowd, and the Chinese Christians’ secret removal of his body to a consecrated resting place, where relics (fragments of his clothes soaked in his blood) were distributed.

The allocution continues with an analysis of the case to be made for Sanz to be officially declared a martyr. The Pope cautions us that, just because he has styled Sanz a martyr in the course of the allocution, he is not bypassing official Church procedure and the official status of martyrdom will only be conferred if he merits it after formal examination. For the Pope has styled Sanz not a “vindicated” martyr but rather a “consummated” martyr.

It is worth noting that this status affects how writers can refer to such persons in their accounts. The Pope explicitly notes that the term consummated martyr “is a term also permitted to historians, who commend to posterity the life and deeds of those whom they judge to have died in this mortal life for the Christian Religion; provided, however, that they warn their readers that such persons are not therefore truly to be held or venerated as Martyrs merely because the writers themselves record this in their books.”

The Pope also mentions that it must be established whether or not the zealous Chinese Christians “overstepped the bounds of private devotion” by publicly venerating Sanz, behavior that could adversely affect Sanz’ candidacy. Regarding whether or not Sanz is a candidate for the title of first Chinese martyr, the Pope demurs.

Maggs Bros., Bibliotheca Asiatica from 1924, p. 197