Biography
Maria Zheng Xu
About Maria Zheng Xu
Maria Zheng Xu was the youngest of four Catholic girls raised at the Wangla orphanage. The account compiled by Per Einar Odden places her birth in 1889 in Dongguang. Her childhood is known chiefly through the story of the girls killed together during the Boxer violence.
The Markham parish account describes their capture and return to Wanglajia, where they were killed after refusing to abandon Christianity. Its modern devotional painting does not provide an authenticated likeness of Zheng Xu.
She died on June 28, 1900. Her approximate birth year makes her about eleven. Her individual commemoration is June 28.
The canonization decree names her among the lay martyrs recognized by John Paul II on October 1, 2000.
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