info@bxvi.org

wongr@sfarch.org

Stanzas for the Chinese Martyrs

2 Corinthians 4:8

I/ Fr. Chrysostom Chang
A flowering of wire
    Binds the bare wrists behind;
The opened skin a fire
    He suffers to remind
Of one before who wore a crown of briar.

II/ Fr. Francis Tan Tiande
All other petals fled
    As pelting snow descends,
Stiff boughs awash in red
    Blossoms the season lends
Blush like the beaten prisoner’s lifted head. 

                       *
Cold breath in air appears
    As he toils through the cold,
Exiled these thirty years.
    His stiffening arms enfold
A girl who wanders through the snow in tears.

III/ Gertrude Li Minwen
Within the cell she’ll wait
    As does the lily’s heart
Beneath the snowfall’s weight,
    However unsure what part
She plays within the suffering Church’s fate.

IV/ Fr. Joseph Li Chang
After the lamp-lit Mass,
    The corporal stashed away,
He seemed a shattered glass
    And now began to pray
That with his suffering his breath might pass.
                       *
The spring rains come at last
    To soften frozen soil.
The heart regrets the past;
    The stomach longs for oil.
Green shoots appear where last year’s seeds were cast.

V/ Fr. John Huang Youngmu
They are too long, the days
    Of laboring iron and stone.
Our food a bowl of maize,
    Our prayers a silent moan,
We, the afflicted, are yet full of praise.  

 

James Matthew Wilson is the Poet-in-Residence of the Benedict XVI Institute. His Most recent book of poems is Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds (Word on Fire, 2024).

 
 

More To Explore