The History of the Beitang Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is wrapped up in that of The Boxer Rebellion.
About the Boxers:
The Boxers in the Boxer Rebellion were members of a Chinese secret society called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (Yihequan). They practiced martial arts and believed they could make themselves impervious to bullets. Westerners referred to them as “Boxers” due to their martial arts training, which involved boxing and calisthenics.
About the Boxer Rebellion:
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty. It was fueled by resentment towards Western imperialism, including foreign influence in Chinese affairs, missionary activities, and the presence of foreign troops. The rebellion was crushed by an eight-nation alliance that intervened with military force
In June, 1900 the Boxers besieged the Beitang Cathedral. Directing the defense during the siege was the French Lazarist Bishop Pierre-Marie-Alphonse Favier, C.M. of Peking. Bishop Favier, who designed the cathedral, kept a journal during the siege and gave vivid accounts of what was endured not only before, but during the siege. He provides the following account of the Boxer revolt:
Lieutenant Paul-Charles-Joseph Henry, 1876-1900. Lt. Paul Henry told Bishop Favier. “I shall be happy to die in so worthy a cause. I hope that God will open Paradise to me. If I am to die, I shall not die until you no longer need me.”
He was killed on July 30, 1900.
“The Boxers are a truly diabolical sect; invocations, incantations, obsessions, and even possessions, are common among them. Savants may attribute their extraordinary doings to magnetism or hypnotism or may look upon them as victims of hysteria and fanaticism, but to us they seem to be even more directly instruments of the devil. The hatred of the name Catholic drives them to the greatest excesses. Established as they are in every village they unite on a day specified to attack any one Catholic settlement, destroying and murdering everything and everyone in it. Small children were quartered, women were burned in church or run through with a sword, men were stabbed or shot and some were even crucified. The conduct of the Catholics is admirable; apostasy is proposed to them, but they prefer flight, ruin, even death.”
Xishiku church, Beijing, China, built in 1890, under the direction of Lazarist missionary Bishop Pierre-Marie-Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), who designed it. In June, 1900 the Boxers besieged the Beitang Cathedral. Photo by Peter Potrowl.
Beitang Cathedral, Beijing, China, built in 1890, under the direction of Lazarist missionary Bishop Pierre-Marie-Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), who designed it. In 1900, when Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi ordered the Boxers to massacre foreigners within China, a group of ambassadors, their families and staff holed up in besieged the Beitang Cathedral.
The cathedral, which was the Lazarists’ usual place of residency, was besieged by 10,000 Boxers and soldiers from the regular army. Behind the walls of the church were over 3,000 Chinese Catholics, 30 French seamen led by a 23-year-old Lt. Paul Henry (who died in the siege,) 11 Italian soldiers led by a 22-year-old Lt. Olivieri, and numerous French and Chinese priests and sisters.
This siege resulted in the deaths of more than 400 people. Over the two-month siege, the Catholics endured continuous bombardment, mine attacks, flaming rockets, and starvation. Many of the children died from smallpox.
Among the admirable figures in the siege was Sister Helen de Jaurias, the Superior of the Sisters of Charity in Beitang, of whom it is said that she possessed the virtue and character of their foundress, Saint Louise de Marillac. Sister Hélène de Jaurias was a noble and her grandfather was one of the first company of the bodyguard of King Louis XVI.
Her siege diary provides proof of this: despite having to lodge and feed 1,800 women and children, she overcame the burden of old age and fatigue, she recorded the daily events of the siege until her death on August 20. She went, as she expressed it, “to observe from Heaven the triumph of Holy Church and the conversion of China.” A few days before her death, a company of French marines arrived to rescue the heroic defenders of Beitang.
In 1901, at the Lazarists’ mother house in Paris, Bishop Favier would recount events of this dramatic siege: “Every night during those two months, the Chinese [Boxers] directed heavy gunfire at the roofs of the cathedral and the balustrade surrounding it. Why? wondered [Lieutenant] Paul Henry and the missionaries. There was no one there to defend the cathedral. After the liberation, the pagans provided the key to this mystery: ‘How is it,’ they said, ‘that you did not see anything? Every night, a white Lady walked along the roof, and the balustrade was lined with white soldiers with wings.’ The Chinese [Boxers], as they themselves affirm, were firing at the apparitions.”
Their miraculous survival was attributed to the appearance of a woman in white, Our Lady of Deliverance. Bishop Favier had a chapel erected in thanksgiving, in the church of Beitang in her honor. She is represented as the Empress of China holding in her arms the Child Jesus, Who is depicted as an imperial prince.
A movie, based on the events here, “55 days at Peking” with an all-star cast including Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, David Niven and other stars premiered at the Beverly Theater in California, earning $22,000 within a week. It later opened nationwide in 21 theaters throughout 15 key cities. During the first weekend of June 1963, 55 Days at Peking became the number-one box office film in the United States.
Traveling to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beitang, China:
Beitang Cathedral
China, Tianjin, Heping, 西宁道9
phone+86 22 2781 1929
Address459W+33 Heping, Tianjin, China