# Beda Chang
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{{short description|Chinese Jesuit priest and martyr (c.1905–1951)}}
{{Modern persecutions of the Catholic Church}}
'''Beda Chang''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[SJ](/source/Society_of_Jesus)}} ({{zh|s=张伯达|t=張伯達|p=Zhang Boda}}) (c. 1905 – November 11, 1951) was a Chinese [Jesuit](/source/Jesuit) [priest](/source/priest). He was [martyr](/source/martyr)ed after being tortured during a wave of [persecution](/source/Persecution_of_Christians) by the [communist](/source/communist) government.
== Biography ==
Born as Zhang Zhengming ({{zh|t=張正明|s=张正明}}) to a Shanghai family which had been Catholic for many generations, he studied at St Ignatius College in Shanghai and completed his doctorate of letters in [sinology](/source/sinology) at the University of Paris in 1937.[{{cite thesis|title=L'écriture chinoise et le geste humain : essai sur la formation de l'écriture chinoise|author=B. Tchang Tcheng-ming|year=1937|publisher=University of Paris|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5438520r}}] He became dean of faculty of arts at [Shanghai](/source/Shanghai)'s Aurora University.[{{cite book|last1=Liu|first1=William T.|first2=Beatrice|last2=Leung|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jhItFagifIoC|title=The Chinese Catholic Church in Conflict: 1949-2001|page= 68|publisher=Universal Publishers|year=2004|isbn=9781581125146 }}]
Because he refused to renounce his faith and to cooperate with the government in their persecution of the Church, Chang was arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and then died.[[https://dawneden.blogspot.com/2008/06/first-time-in-print-archbishop-sheen.html Excerpt from a 1952 speech by Archbishop Fulton Sheen at University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy]] [William Aedan McGrath](/source/Aedan_McGrath), in the cell opposite Chang, reported that he saw the priest languishing and vomiting in the cell for two months before he died on the morning of November 11, 1951.[{{cite web|last=Moreau|first=Theresa Marie |url=http://tmmoreau.com/mcgrath.html |title=Warrior Priest: Father McGrath and the Battle for the Soul of China |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717064240/http://tmmoreau.com/mcgrath.html |archive-date=2011-07-17 }}]
==Veneration==
Chang's body was returned to the Church the next day on November 12 and Shanghai's Catholics began to venerate him as a martyr, turning out in great numbers for a series of [requiem Masses](/source/requiem).[{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sTu575cOyAC&pg=PA87|title=Church Militant|last=Mariani|first=Paul P.|date=2011|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674063174|location=Cambridge, MA|pages=87–91|language=en}}]
The government issued a statement denouncing the prayers and Masses for Chang as a "new type of bacteria warfare by the imperialists – a counterrevolutionary mental bacteria."[{{cite book|last=Weir|first=Charlene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqEAYmLkP9wC|title=The Wisdom of the Popes|page=219|publisher=Macmillan|year=1957|isbn=9780312300296 }}] The police guarded the grave to prevent veneration, but reports of miracles accomplished through the intercession of Chang began to be reported.