Agnes Tsao Kou Ying (28 April 1821 – 1 March 1856; also Agnes Kouying Tsao), or Cao Guiying (), was a

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

Chinese layperson who was martyred for preaching the Gospel in

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

. She was

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

a martyr-saint by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 1 October 2000.

Early life

Tsao was born in the small village of Wujiazhai in

Guizhou Province Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to ...

on April 28, 1821. Her family was a traditional

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family originally from

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

Province. She later left her hometown to work in the city of Xingyi after her parents died. There she met a Catholic woman who let her live with her. Soon, Bishop Bai came to visit Xingyi and found out that she was without family so he took her to the local parish to learn more about Christianity. The bishop found her to be clever and a quick learner. When Tsao became eighteen, she married a local farmer, but her brother- and sister-in-law treated her as an outsider (for she was Christian) and did not consider her a part of the family. Therefore, Tsao was left with little to eat. Things became worse for Tsao when her husband died after two years and she was driven out of the house. In order to support herself, she took odd jobs as a helper. Then a pious Catholic widow invited Tsao to stay with her. She also had a good understanding of the

scriptures Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual pra ...

and the teachings of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Whenever a priest visited them this widow received the

Sacrament of Reconciliation The Sacrament of Penance (also commonly called the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession) is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church (known in Eastern Christianity as sacred mysteries), in which the faithful are absolved from s ...

and the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

. With such an example before her, Tsao was able to cultivate her own spirituality.

Missionary work

One day, when the priest Auguste Chapdelaine was in town, he discovered how well Tsao knew the faith and asked her to move to

Province for some

missionary work A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

, especially for teaching the Catholic faith to some 30-40 Catholic families living there (Catholics were very few in those days). In 1852, she went out to the town of Baijiazhai in

Xilin County Xilin County (; za, Sihlinz Yen) is a county in the northwest of Guangxi, China, bordering Yunnan province to the south and west. It is the westernmost county-level division of the autonomous region and is under the administration of the prefectur ...

and made it her preaching headquarters, teaching the Catholic faith throughout Guangxi. She also taught cooking and household management, and in her spare time helped babysit.

Arrest and death

In 1856, when she was helping out in Yaoshan,

(near present-day

Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...

), the local government decided to take some measures against the Christians living in that area. Tsao was taken into custody along with many other Catholics who were soon released; only Tsao and Chapdelaine had to stay in prison. Chapdelaine later died in prison. The county magistrate tried to persuade Tsao to deny her faith under the promise that if she did, she would be released. However, Tsao was unmoved. Then the magistrate threatened torture, but she showed no fear. Finally, on the 22nd day of the first month ( Chinese calendar date), the magistrate decided on her punishment. He had her locked in a cage so small that she could only stand up. She prayed repeatedly, "God, have mercy on me; Jesus save me!" She died three days later on March 1, 1856 (

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

date).

Beatification and canonization

Pope Leo XIII proclaimed her "

Blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatural ...

" on 27 May 1900, and Pope John Paul II

her as a

Martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

Saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

on 1 October 2000. Agnes Tsao Kou Ying is honored (with Agatha Lin Zhao and Lucy Yi Zhenmei) with a Lesser Feast on the

liturgical calendar The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...

of the

Episcopal Church in the United States of America The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...

February 19 Events Pre-1600 * 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies. * 356 – The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan ...

Notes

There is a

Chinese Catholic The Catholic Church in China (called Tiānzhǔ Jiào, 天主敎, literally "Religion of the Lord of Heaven" after the Chinese term for the Christian God) has a long and complicated history. John of Montecorvino was the first Roman Catholic ...

church in

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest ...

, named after her. As of 2015, she was one of the few canonized Chinese Catholic martyrs.Boudreau, Evan. "Family of Faith is bringing pastor closer to his flock", ''The Catholic Register'', January 31, 2015
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References