Saint Lucy Yi Zhenmei (1815 – 1862 AD)
Feast Day: July 9 (Holy Martyrs of China)
St. Lucy Yi Zhenmei was a Chinese Catholic saint from Mianyang in Sichuan, China. She was born on December 9, 1815, and was the youngest member in her family.
Lucy was a very pious child; she vowed to live a life of chastity at 12 years of age. As she grew up, she developed a love for reading and study. At age 20, she grew very ill. After her recovery, Lucy took her spiritual life even more seriously. She devoted herself to the discipline of prayer with great devotion, assuming a way of life much like that of a religious while continuing to assist in the support her family. Her mother taught her how to spin, which also became part of her daily life.
After her father died, she lived with her brother and mother, using part of her free time to teach the faith to children nearby. The parish priest, who asked her to teach at the school in Mianyang, noticed her devotion and knowledge of her faith. After four years, her brother went to Chongqing to practice medicine, and Lucy and her mother moved with him. In Chongqing, the priest also asked her to help teach the women in the parish. When she was offered money for her work, she refused to take it and offered her work to God.
A few years later, her brother moved back to Guiyang, during which time her mother died. Full of enthusiasm to spread the Gospel, she went on doing missionary work. However, for her own safety she decided to stay at the convent of lay virgins. Shortly after, her failing health forced her to move back home again. In 1861, Bishop Hu asked her to teach once more at the convent. In spite of opposition from relatives, she returned to work there.
In 1862, she went with Fr. Jean-Pierre Neel to open a mission in Jiashanlong, but just then the administrator of Guizhou Province, Tian Xingshu, began to stir up hatred against Christians, which the local magistrate supported. As a result, John Zhang Tianshen, Martin Wu Xuesheng, John Chen Xianheng and Fr. Jean-Pierre Neel were all imprisoned and sentenced to death without a formal trial. On February 18, on the day of their execution, they met Lucy Yi Zhenmei on the road. She was also jailed and put on trial that very day and sentenced to death, because she refused to renounce her faith. The following day at noon, February 19, 1862, she was beheaded. Brave believers took the bodies of all five martyrs to the Liuchonnguan seminary grounds for burial.
Lucy Yi Zhenmei was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000 as one of the holy martyr Saints of China.