Wednesday 9 July 2025
St Augustine Zhao Rong & Cc
Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7, 17-24. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you – Ps 32(33):2-3, 10-11, 18-19. Matthew 10:1-7.
Death is not the end
Today is the feast of St Augustine Zhao Rong and the 120 Chinese martyrs. He was born in 1746 and executed in 1815, some 30 years after he had been baptised, and 25 years after he was ordained a priest. An encounter with an imprisoned French priest he was guarding began his conversion. He and 120 other Chinese martyrs were honoured with canonisation by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The story of the First Reading today takes us back to Pharaoh and to Joseph and a reminder of the seven years of plenty followed by the seven years of famine. Is this an echo of the lives of every martyr, including the 11 disciples of Jesus, omitting Judas? They knew the blessings of the Holy Spirit, the time of plenty, and the time of persecution and death. But death was not the end, as the disciples knew.
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