Liu Wenyuan

Who they were

Born in Guizhou province in 1790, Liu Wenyuan, known as Peter, was moved to convert to Christianity in 1797 after a Catholic silk merchant spoke to him of the Gospel; he travelled to Guiyang, was instructed and baptised. In 1800 he was arrested with five other Catholics and exiled to Manchuria, where he was sold as a slave and endured thirty years of harsh treatment without complaint, offering his sufferings for God's glory.

An amnesty in 1830 let him return home to his farm, but persecution resumed four years later and his sons and daughter-in-law were arrested; disguising himself as a vegetable merchant to reach and encourage them, he was recognised as a Catholic and imprisoned. Even under terrible torture his faith did not waver, and he prayed and praised God constantly; his second son and daughter-in-law were exiled to Mongolia, and his eldest son died in prison, news he received with the words, "God's will be done." He was executed on 17 May 1834; tradition says a ball of fire descended from heaven and rested on his head as he was led from the prison, and an angel wiped the blood from his face and carried his soul to heaven. His wife recovered his body and buried it in the garden he had long tended. He was beatified in 1900 and canonised among the 120 Martyrs of China on 1 October 2000.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

Chinese catechist enslaved for thirty years for his faith, martyred by strangulation in 1834; canonised among the 120 Martyrs of China in 2000.

Connected on this site

• Peter Lieou Saint
  “Peter Lieou also known as Liu Wenyuan Petrus / Baiduo / Peter Liu Wenyuan was Chinese Catholic convert, layman, missionary and a martyr.” — Wikipedia