1748 - Joachim Royo

October 28, 1748

Fuzhou, Fujian

Joachim Royo.

Joachim Royo Perez was born at Teruel, Spain, in 1691. While still a teenager in 1709 he joined the Dominican Order in Valencia, and three years later was sent as a missionary to the Philippines. After a short time there he sailed for China in 1715, spending the first two years in the town of Quanzhou (formerly Zaitun) in Fujian Province. Quanzhou had contained a Christian community for more than 400 years. In the early 1300s a wealthy Armenian woman living in Quanzhou was grieved that there was no place of Christian worship in the city. Seeing this,

“The Armenian lady…attending only to the promptings of her zeal and piety, and determining to devote her immense riches to the salvation of souls, and the glory of God, built such a magnificent church there, that the Archbishop, Montecorvino, gave it the name of a cathedral and raised the province into a diocese.”[1]

When the edict against Christianity was issued, Royo was travelling around the provinces of Jiangxi and Zhejiang. He was the only foreign missionary in those places and so was easily detectable. One source notes that Royo led “a hidden life, serving his people by night and often spending much time hidden in secret rooms, tombs and cemeteries.”[2] In July, 1746, Royo was discovered by the enraged officials and was sent to prison at Fuzhou, largest city and capital of Fujian Province. For the next two years he remained behind bars. Other prisoners reported he spent most of his time in prayer and in preaching the gospel to the other prisoners and guards. His face had a glow to it and his nature reflected the beauty and holiness of Jesus Christ.

Finally, on October 28, 1748, Joachim Royo was put to death by suffocation. He was 57-years-old. The men who were charged with executing him declared,

“He received us with joy. We felt a deep remorse about being forced to carry out the order for his execution, because we revered him as a very good and innocent man. He constantly preached to us about the Christian religion and in prison we always saw him praying to God with a joyful countenance. Oh, he was indeed a holy man.”[3]

1. Huc, Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet, 357.
2. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 72.
3. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 72.