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Biography

James Yan Guodong

Portrait of James Yan Guodong

About James Yan Guodong

James Yan Guodong came from a poor farming family in Shanxi. At the Catholic mission in Taiyuan, he prepared vegetables and helped provide meals for missionaries, religious sisters, seminarians, and children at the orphanage. His responsibilities later included work as an assistant cook.

The church account places him among the mission staff imprisoned during the Boxer uprising. He was killed with the larger group at Taiyuan in July 1900. He was canonized in 2000 with the Chinese martyrs.

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