Biography
Rose Zhao
About Rose Zhao
Rose Zhao was a Chinese Catholic catechist from Zhaojia in Wuqiao, Hebei. She was born around 1878 and is commemorated on July 20.
She was the elder daughter of Maria Zhao Guoshi and the sister of the younger Maria Zhao. Markham’s Chinese Martyrs parish remembers her devotion to teaching the faith and her kindness toward people in poverty. Its account presents her as a young laywoman living within her family and village.
During the Boxer violence, Rose was captured with her mother and sister. The parish account describes an attempt to escape through a well, followed by demands that they renounce Christianity. Rose encouraged her family to pray. A villager tried to save them, but they were killed. These details come through later devotional accounts; the speeches assigned to Rose are not treated here as a verified transcript.
The sources disagree about the date. Markham gives June 28, 1900.
Odden gives July 28.
Flocchini gives July 20.
Only the year is retained for her death. Her liturgical commemoration is recorded separately.
John Paul II canonized Rose among the Chinese martyrs on October 1, 2000.
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