Beda Chang, S.J. (c. 1905 – November 11, 1951) was a Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 Roman Catholic Jesuit priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 and martyr

Martyr

A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

. He was tortured to death during a wave of persecution

Persecution of Christians

Persecution of Christians as a consequence of professing their faith can be traced both historically and in the current era. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith, at the hands of both Jews from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Roman Empire which controlled much of the land...

 by the communist government.

Born as Chang Cheng-Min (or Tsan Cheng-Min, varying sources), Father Beda Chang was a priest and the dean of faculty of arts at Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

's Aurora University.

Arrest and execution

Because he refused to renounce his faith and to cooperate with the government in their persecution of the Church, Fr. Chang was arrested, imprisoned, tortured and then died. Rev. William Aedan McGrath, in the cell opposite Chang, reported that he saw the priest languishing and vomiting in the cell for two months before he died. Chinese Roman Catholics reacted with mass protests and turned out in great numbers for Father Chang's requiem Mass.

Aftermath and veneration as martyr

After Father Chang's death, the communist government issued a statement denouncing the prayers and Mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

es for Chang as a “new type of bacteria warfare by the imperialists – a counterrevolutionary mental bacteria.”

After the burial the faithful began to visit Fr. Chang’s grave, the police guarded the grave to prevent veneration, but reports of miracles accomplished through the intercession of Fr. Chang began to be reported. The Chinese authorities later admonished Shanghai's Roman Catholic Bishop Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei (himself later imprisoned for 30 years). Fr. Chang’s body was returned to the Church on November 12, 1951 and Shanghai's Catholics began to venerate him as a martyr.

Further reading

• Father Beda Chang: Witness for Unity, Catholic Truth Society, Hong Kong 1953