Biography
Simon Qin Chunfu
About Simon Qin Chunfu
Simon Qin Chunfu was a fourteen-year-old Chinese Catholic killed in 1900. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him with his mother, Elizabeth Qin Bianzhi, at Liucun near Renqin in Hebei.
In Odden’s account, Elizabeth was a widow raising six children. During the Boxer violence of June 1900, they sheltered with friends and then moved to Liucun. A wealthy man offered protection if Simon married his daughter. Simon refused to leave his mother.
When attackers caught the fleeing family, Simon asked them to let the others go. He knelt in prayer before being killed; his brother Paul was wounded.
Per Einar Odden’s account also separates Simon’s death from his mother’s. It dates his killing to July 17 and hers to July 19. Their joint commemoration falls on July 19.
The family’s story includes people who survived. Odden names Matthew, Simon’s elder brother, and Frances, his youngest sister, as having escaped the killings. A relative took Frances to safety. His family experienced both loss and survival.
Pius XII beatified Simon and Elizabeth in 1955. John Paul II canonized them on October 1, 2000, with the martyrs of China. The Holy See’s list includes Simon among the Chinese lay martyrs of Hebei and again gives his age as fourteen. He was not the catechist in the Shanxi group, although some lists confuse their names.
The Liturgical Research Center in Taiwan lists Qin Chunfu among the Hebei martyrs in its 2024 celebration of the Chinese saints. His individual commemoration and the wider group observance preserve the memory of a young lay Christian alongside adults, clergy and other children.
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