Biography
Maria Zhao
About Maria Zhao
Maria Zhao was the younger daughter of Maria Zhao Guoshi and the sister of Rose Zhao. She came from Zhaojiacun in Wuqiao, Hebei, and was still a teenager when she died. Her life must be distinguished from her mother’s, despite their shared Christian name.
Emilia Flocchini’s account describes both sisters as having privately committed themselves to virginity. It presents them as laywomen living with their mother, not members of a convent. During the Boxer violence, the three remained at home in prayer before they were captured. They went into a well while being taken away, but their captors pulled them out and demanded that they abandon Christianity.
The later narratives give Rose the leading speaking role. Odden recounts that a local man tried to intervene, but the women were taken to the Zhao family burial ground and killed. These reported speeches should not be transferred to the younger Maria or treated as an independently verified transcript of her words.
Accounts disagree about the family’s death date: July 20, July 28, and June 28, 1900, appear in the sources. Only the year is retained here.
She was beatified on April 17, 1955.
John Paul II canonized her on October 1, 2000.
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