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Martyr

Thomas

Chinese Orthodox Christian, killed in Beijing in 1900 during the Boxer Rising.

Feast
June 11old style June 24
Reposed
190020th century
Place
Beijing
Order
Martyrs

Life

Thomas was a boy of 9, son of Philip Antony Li. He was killed on 14 June 1900 (old style; 27 June in the new), during the Boxer Rising, at the railway station at Fengtai.

In June 1900 proclamations were posted in the streets of Beijing calling for the killing of Christians and threatening with death anyone who sheltered them. His name appears in the list of the 222 Orthodox Christians killed in the Boxer Rising, published in 1904 by the Brotherhood of the Orthodox Church in China. The sources give no further details about him.

In 1902 the Holy Synod of the Russian Church allowed the local veneration of the Chinese martyrs, and in 2016 its Council of Bishops blessed their veneration throughout the Russian Church. They are commemorated together on 11 June (old style).

Commemorated the same day June 11