Biography
Mary An Guoshi
About Mary An Guoshi
Mary An Guoshi was a married Chinese Catholic from Anping in Hebei. Her birth is generally placed around 1836.
She belonged to the An family, whose four women are remembered together: Anna An Xingshi, Mary An Guoshi, Anna An Jiaoshi and Mary An Linghua. The account compiled by Per Einar Odden records their arrest during the Boxer violence on July 11, 1900. Ordered to give up Christianity, they refused and were taken outside their village and killed. The surviving account offers little about Mary’s earlier life, and a detailed reconstruction of her household would go beyond it.
The Institute of Sino-Christian Studies index also records An Guo as a laywoman from Anping who died in the persecution of 1900.
John Paul II canonized her on October 1, 2000.
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