Anne-Françoise Moreau

Anne-Françoise Moreau, known in religion as Marie of Saint Just (Marie de Saint-Just), was a French nun of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary and one of the Catholic martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion. She was born on 9 April 1866 in the commune of La Faye in western France. In her youth she developed a religious vocation and entered the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, a congregation founded in 1877 by Hélène de Chappotin (Mother Mary of the Passion) for missionary service. She received the religious name Marie of Saint Just and was formed in the Franciscan missionary spirituality of the institute, which combined contemplative prayer with active work among the poor.

Assigned to the Catholic mission in Shanxi in northern China, she served at Taiyuan, where Franciscan bishops and friars had long maintained a vicariate and where the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary conducted an orphanage and works of charity. The sisters cared for abandoned children, nursed the sick, and assisted Chinese catechumens and converts. Life in the mission combined austerity with close contact with the local population. By 1900 the Catholic community in Shanxi included both a small number of European missionaries and a substantial body of Chinese Christians.

In 1900 the Boxer movement, which combined anti-foreign and anti-Christian violence, spread through northern China. In Shanxi the provincial governor Yuxian adopted a policy of exterminating missionaries and Chinese Catholics. In July the European clergy, seminarians, and the seven Franciscan Missionaries of Mary at Taiyuan were taken into custody. On 9 July 1900 they were brought before the governor and put to death, principally by beheading. Marie of Saint Just died that day together with her sisters Marie Hermine of Jesus, Maria della Pace, Maria Chiara, Marie of Saint Natalie, Marie Adolfine, and Marie Amandine, as well as Bishops Gregorio Grassi and Francesco Fogolla and numerous Chinese faithful. She was thirty-four years old.

The Taiyuan martyrs were beatified by Pope Pius XII on 24 November 1946. On 1 October 2000, during the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II canonized one hundred and twenty martyrs of China, among them Marie of Saint Just and her companions of 9 July 1900. The Church commemorates these martyrs on 9 July. Marie of Saint Just is remembered as a missionary who remained with the Christian community of Shanxi in time of persecution rather than seeking safety.