Women’s History Review

Vol. 17, No. 4, September 2008, pp. 501–520

Controlling the Virgins: female

propagators of the faith and the
Catholic hierarchy in China
R.G. Tiedemann

A particular group of Chinese Catholic laywomen activists from a century or more ago,
Women’s
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namely the so-called ‘institute of virgins’, provides the focus for this article. These women,
having consecrated their lives to the service of God and taken a vow of chastity, lived either
individually with their families or in small groups of single women. In consequence of the
strict segregation of the sexes in China, they became a vital element in the propagation of
the Christian faith among females from almost the very beginning of the missionary enter-
prise in China. A brief comparison is offered between the Catholic ‘institute of virgins’ and
other ‘deviant’ groups and practices in traditional Chinese society, namely the phenomena
of ‘marriage resistance’ and ‘sworn spinsterhood’. The analysis then explores in detail the
crucial role of these unwed Catholic women in the expansion of the Chinese church and the
preservation of the Christian faith in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
while simultaneously probing clerical attempts at their control.

Introduction
‘Woe betide the Christian villages deprived of virgins!’ commented a Jesuit missionary
in 1919. ‘I pity the Missionaries who want to maintain there the faith and fervour with-
out this assistance.’1 In consequence of the strict custom of segregating the sexes in
traditional Chinese society, the evangelisation of women presented a particular chal-
lenge for Christian missionaries. Although women often played a pivotal role in the

R. G. [‘Gary’] Tiedemann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Christianity in China, King’s
College London, UK. Some of his extensive publications have appeared in German or Chinese. He is the author
of Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: from the 16th to the 20th century (M. E. Sharpe, 2008),
of ‘Christianity in East Asia’ in Stewart J. Brown & Timothy Tackett (Eds) Cambridge History of Christianity, vol.
7: Enlightenment, Reawakening and Revolution 1660–1815 (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and the co-editor
with Robert Bickers of The Boxers, China and the World (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). Correspondence to:
Dr R. G. Tiedemann, 84 Bridle Road, Croydon CR0 8HE, UK. Email: tiedemanng@aol.com

ISSN 0961–2025 (print)/ISSN 1747–583X (online)/08/040501–20 © 2008 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09612020802200351
502 R.G. Tiedemann
conversion of families, Chinese mores made it all but impossible for priests—foreign
and Chinese—to establish direct contact with them. Since it was also impractical to
establish proper Catholic convents prior to the Sino-foreign treaties of the mid-
nineteenth century, certain indigenous single laywomen became a vital element in the
apostolate (that is, the propagation of the Christian faith) amongst Chinese females
from about the middle of the seventeenth century. (The first Catholic missionaries
arrived in 1582.) The preferred terms for these so-called ‘virgins’ in official accounts
seem to have been tongzhen or zhennü, i.e. ‘chaste women’; colloquially, they were
called zhujiadi, lit. ‘those who dwell at home’, in certain parts of China, and elsewhere
guniang, lit. ‘old mother’, or gu taitai, i.e. ‘auntie’.2
Yet how was it possible for these ‘virgins’ to operate successfully in traditional
Confucian and patriarchal society, in which every female was expected to marry? After
all, it is generally assumed even today that women’s lives were highly restricted in pre-
revolutionary China. Note, for instance, the following quote from a recent Catholic
publication:
For thousands of years a woman in China was strictly restricted by the Confucian code
of conduct which required her to be obedient first to her father, and then to her
husband, and later to her son. Women worked with men side by side in the rice fields,
but unlike men, they were never taught to read and write. They had no control over
property, money, or other resources.3
This stereotype is, of course, not without a degree of truth. Yet it is perhaps more a
reflection of the position of women according to the Confucian ideal, but does not
necessarily reflect Chinese reality. Indeed, a careful examination of the literature
reveals that in certain parts of China deviations from the ideal of marriage and child-
bearing as the only socially valued way of life for a woman were not uncommon, such
as, for example, the phenomenon of ‘sworn spinsterhoods’ in the Pearl River delta of
Guangdong province. Since one can perceive certain parallels with the single Catholic
laywomen, a few lines will be devoted to this traditional non-Christian practice.
However, the primary purpose of this study is the discussion of the means by which the
foreign priests—when they resumed their missionary work in increasing numbers after
1840—sought to control the hitherto largely autonomous Chinese female church
workers. The article concludes with an examination of the institute of virgins as it
existed in certain vicariates apostolic during the first half of the twentieth century.
But before focusing attention on these matters, a few comments on the origin of the
so-called ‘institute of virgins’ may be in order.

Origin of the Institute of Virgins

Given the nature of the evangelistic task and the paucity of clergy, especially following
the Yongzheng emperor’s proscription of Christianity in 1724, the mission enterprise
had to rely on various kinds of lay personnel to manage local church affairs and evan-
gelisation.4 For analytical purposes, it is useful to distinguish among three types of
lay leadership: male itinerant catechists, congregational leaders (huizhang)5 and the
aforementioned ‘virgins’.
 Women’s History Review 503
The earliest known Chinese Christian woman to provide support for the Catholic
enterprise was Candida Xu (1607–80), granddaughter of the prominent late Ming
scholar-official and early convert Paulus Xu Guangqi (1562–1633). She and her circle
of women mobilised, among other things, substantial financial support to sustain the
embryonic Jesuit missionary operations in China.6 Another upper-class woman, Agnes
Yang, daughter of the prominent Catholic Yang Tingyun (1562–1627) of Hangzhou,
Zhejiang, organised a group of virgins consecrated to God and dedicated to good
works.7 It was, however, ordinary Chinese Christian women who were to play an
important role in the Catholic Church of China, especially the ‘virgins’. The earliest
evidence of their activities comes from seventeenth-century Fujian province, where
Spanish Dominican friars introduced the so-called beata (‘blessed [virgins]’) system
which had long been popular in Spain.8 Under this system, Christian laywomen conse-
crated their lives to the service of God and the mission. These Chinese virgins, bound
by a private vow of chastity, continued to live with their families, where they instructed
the women and children.
To some extent influenced by the Fujian experience, the missionaries of the Missions
Etrangères de Paris (MEP) introduced the institute of virgins in their mission in western
China. In 1744 the vicar apostolic9 of Yunnan and Sichuan, Joachim Enjobert de
Martiliat MEP (1706–75), published the first rules of conduct for virgins in a pastoral
letter. Later on, these rules were adapted to changing conditions, especially by Jean-
Martin Moyë MEP (1730–93), who implemented this institution outside the family as
well. Thus, unlike the virgins of seventeenth-century Fujian, those of Sichuan were also
involved in the external catechetical apostolate and the care of abandoned girls.10 The
rules concerning the formation of character, cultivation of a religious life, and Christian
virtues, especially chastity, were subsequently approved by the Sacred Congregation for
the Propagation of the Faith (or simply Propaganda Fide), the Vatican’s office for the
coordination and supervision of the work of various Catholic missionary societies, in a
letter to Monsignor François Pottier of Sichuan in 1784 and outlined in a pastoral letter
by Monsignor Jean Didier de Saint-Martin (1743–1801) in 1793. Further elaborated by
the Sichuan Synod of 1803,11 and then approved by Propaganda Fide in Rome and
made applicable to all of China by decree in 1832, the rules for virgins remained in force
well into the twentieth century. Thus the essential value of the virgins to the apostolate
was recognised. Indeed, in times of persecution they became the true pillars of the faith
within extended kinship networks and local Christian communities.

Traditions of Marriage Resistance and Sworn Spinsterhood in Chinese Society

Since it is often assumed that Christian doctrines and practices inevitably challenged
Confucian ethics and social norms, one would have expected the opposition to the
decision of certain Catholic women not to marry to have been particularly severe.
Although anti-Christian violence was by no means uncommon, there is little evidence
to indicate that such hostility was provoked by vows to remain single. Perhaps people
were willing to tolerate this practice on account of the existence of similar traditions
amongst the non-Christian population in some parts of China. For instance, as is well
504 R.G. Tiedemann
known, some women decided to become Buddhist nuns (nigu). However, this certainly
was not an institution Catholics sought to emulate, since Buddhist nuns were generally
held in low esteem in China.12 Nevertheless, Buddhist nunneries provided important
organisational patterns for the formation of certain lay sisterhoods that bore some
similarity to the Catholic ‘institute of virgins’. As Maria Jaschok has pointed out:
Women who did not want to become nuns, yet nevertheless sought to join a religious,
stable, and identity-giving community, would often become zhaijie (lit., vegetarian
sister), Buddhist laywomen. Unlike the nigu, they retained their hair; they gave
expression to their vows of chastity and purity by wearing plain and dark-colored
pyjama-suits, eschewing even at a young age the brightly-colored garments of their
peers … The zhaitang (vegetarian hall), for example, which had existed in the town-
ship of Rongqi in Shunde County, supported itself by services to the community. The
zhaijie would offer herself for such tasks as the bewailing of the corpse at funeral rites,
praying for the sick and dying, worshipping at the soul tablets of deceased ancestors.13
Janice Stockard’s discussion of the practices of ‘delayed transfer marriage’,14 ‘sworn
spinsterhood’ and ‘marriage resistance’ in the Pearl River delta in Guangdong province
is likewise suggestive. Her comments on sworn spinsterhood would seem to be
particularly pertinent:
Sworn spinsterhood was not simply a status ascribed to women who remained
unmarried, but one achieved through a special ritual. Central to that ritual was a hair-
dressing ceremony, and sworn spinsters were known as those who had combed up
their own hair (jihso neuih, or simply sohei). Sworn spinsters chose spinsterhood over
marriage with the endorsement of their natal family in some cases and over family
objections in others. In the early twentieth century, sworn spinsterhood offered
Canton Delta women the ultimate independent way of life.15
Although the extent of this practice is not known, at least in South China spinsterhood
seems to have been more or less tolerated by local society. ‘The zishunü decided already
at an early age to renounce marriage. When the family agreed, the shuqi ceremony
was held, inaugurating her life as an unmarried woman.’16 As this suggests, ‘marriage
resistance’ did not necessarily:
constitute a rebellion against traditional Chinese patriarchy, for the women did not
gain individual economic independence but remained economically responsible to
their natal families. The customs of delayed transfer marriage and sworn spinsterhood
in fact required the active cooperation and complicity of the women’s families, who
stood to gain economically from their labor inside or outside the home or socially
from the display of wealth and status.17
Nevertheless, by the early twentieth century, the practice of sworn spinsterhood was
no longer confined to elite households, for work in the highly commercialised silk
industry and service centres of Guangdong province enabled women from other social
strata to become self-supporting. Similarly, as Roxann Prazniak has shown, unmarried
female cotton weavers of rural Chuansha near Shanghai organised sisterhoods within
a lay Buddhist vegetarian sect.18 She adds that, in the new political climate in the early
twentieth century, ‘Financial self-reliance, alternative residential communities under
their own control, and positive self-definition were the essential ingredients … for
 Women’s History Review 505
women’s political activism’.19 In other words, economic independence had been and
continued to be an essential prerequisite for unwed women in China.
As these examples suggest, not all Chinese women were subject to the majority form
of marriage. At least in certain areas, a substantial minority had more room for
manoeuvre than we have been led to believe.20 As will be shown in greater detail below,
the rituals and practices of spinsters in general, and Buddhist lay sisterhoods in partic-
ular, as well as the formation of ‘spinster houses’, had much in common with the
Catholic institute of virgins. In the same vein, Chinese society at large seems to have
tolerated the phenomenon of unmarried Catholic women, or at least they were not
singled out for criticism any more than other categories of unmarried women. Such
opposition as did develop to the institute of virgins after 1840 emanated from the
Catholic Church hierarchy rather than from non-Christian Chinese society at large.

Controlling the Virgins

Against the background of periodic persecutions and infrequent or non-existent
priestly supervision, especially in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
members of the local Chinese Christian elite had assumed leadership as administrators
(huizhang) of church affairs in their localities. The history of the subsequent reintegra-
tion of the surviving Christian congregations into the Catholic fold and the early
attempts at revitalisation of the church is rather sketchy. There are, however, some
indications that local communities and their lay leaders were loath to give up their
autonomy. In the 1840s the conflict between the European priests and local lay leader-
ship was most notable in the more affluent parts of the mission, such as the Jiangnan
region in the Lower Yangzi Valley around Nanjing, Songjiang and Shanghai. Count
Ludovico Maria de Besi (1805–71), the apostolic administrator of the diocese of
Nanjing, did not help matters in 1847 by launching a harsh and impolitic attack against
the local Catholic leaders in the prefectural city of Songjiang, ‘who form criminal
conventicles, are ignorant of Catholic doctrine, compose and disseminate impious
libels with unparalleled audacity’.21
Such cultural insensitivity was not appreciated by the Chinese Christians. One local
congregation barely disguised its hostility toward Europeans when Stanislas Clavelin,
SJ (1814–62) arrived there in 1857, following the death of the last Chinese priest who
had been in charge of the Christians since the dissolution of the old Jesuit order in the
early 1770s.22 However, once the new Jesuits had taken charge of the Jiangnan
mission,23 they determined to solve the problem of local church autonomy. In the end
it was the devastating military conflict in this region during the Taiping rebellion
(1850–65) that broke the resistance of the erstwhile affluent and influential indigenous
Christian leadership in the Songjiang and Suzhou areas. Uprooted and often without
means, they now became dependent on missionary support. Thomas Breslin comments
on the imposition of European (French) ecclesiastical control: ‘By destroying the
Chinese form of church organization, the Jesuits in Jiangnan made certain that the
Catholic Church in China would be patterned upon the Roman model, which featured
the dominance of a numerous clergy and the subordination of the laity’.24 This
506 R.G. Tiedemann
development, or what Josef Metzler, OMI has called ‘a certain ultramontane centralism
in the periphery of the Church, even before it had taken effect in the European centre’,25
was to be characteristic for the remainder of the Catholic missionary presence in China.
The newly arrived missionaries were particularly incensed by the ecclesiastical power
of women, especially the virgins’ liturgical and religious role in the local community.
During the troubled times of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the
Catholic virgins had contributed significantly to the preservation of Christian commu-
nities. In doing so, they had also carved out for themselves a high degree of autonomy.
The foreign priests appreciated their dedication, but also considered them a source of
scandal. Thus Pierre Lavaissière, CM (1813–64) wrote in 1840 that he was endeavour-
ing to eliminate night visits by the virgins and to compel them to show less familiarity
with their relatives and neighbours.
In the prefectural city of Songjiang, a confrontation between missionaries and
Chinese arose over virgin participation in the liturgy. In the prevailing cultural context,
the segregation of the sexes was maintained in Chinese church life, including the phys-
ical separation of men and women during worship. Consequently, Christian women
often organised their own liturgies of chanting prayers, something that was common
in Buddhism as well. Because of their special status in Catholic communities, the
virgins were accustomed to lead the chanting of these prayers among women. When
Bishop de Besi ordered the prayers to be recited by the entire congregation, men and
women alternately, a storm of protest broke out, since such ‘public conversation’
between men and women offended Chinese moral sensibilities.26 In this connection, it
is interesting to note that prior to the return of the missionaries, the local believers,
while adherents of a foreign creed, had nevertheless developed a modus vivendi which
observed long-established indigenous cultural traditions such as the strict separation
of men and women in public. At the same time, the virgins had not only escaped from
the patriarchal structure of Chinese society but in some instances were also beyond
effective missionary control.
Tensions between foreign priests and Chinese Catholic virgins were not confined
to the Jiangnan area. One of the bishops at the Shanghai Synod of 1851, François
Tagliabue, CM, while praising the virgins’ desire not to marry and to remain celibate,
complained that they were ‘proud, ignorant and some of them cause much scandal’.
Another prominent missionary, Emmanuel Verrolles, MEP, was even more critical,
calling the virgins a plague for the Chinese church. He noted that many continued to
live with their families, rarely prayed, were quarrelsome, disobedient, noisy and roam-
ing about, giving rise to the rumour among non-Christians that they were the priests’
concubines.27 Clearly, the Chinese virgins’ relative independence, religious initiatives
and weak corporate identity28 were perceived as a threat to the patriarchal structure of
the church, and had to be brought under control.
As far as the subordination of the Jiangnan virgins was concerned, they were encour-
aged as early as 1855 to organise themselves into an indigenous religious congregation,
later known as the Association of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin (Présentandines),
under the authority of the French mission superior. From 1869 the newly arrived French
sisters, the Helpers of the Holy Souls (Auxiliatrices des Ames du Purgatoire), began to
 Women’s History Review 507
‘regularise’ the religious life of the Presentandines.29 In other missions, too, more struc-
tured institutions30 began to develop out of the institute of virgins, such as, for example,
the Daughters of St Joseph (Josephines) at Beijing (1872), the Daughters of Purgatory
(Vierges du Purgatoire) at Ningbo (1892) and the Sisters of St Anne in Jiangxi (1897).31
By 1940 virtually every vicariate apostolic had established an indigenous Catholic
sisterhood, or what in some cases might more appropriately be called an association of
diocesan right, i.e. a religious association erected by a diocesan bishop or vicar apostolic
but that had not yet obtained papal approbation.32

The Persistence of the Institute of Virgins

In view of the continuing importance of the apostolate among Chinese women, the
Second Synod of Beijing (1886) praised the ‘institute of virgins’ as highly salutary with
regard to both the promotion of piety among Christians and the propagation of the
Catholic religion among non-Christians. Thus the development of the institution was
encouraged, regardless of whether its members lived with their own families or, pref-
erably, formed loose associations after the manner of a religious institute.33 While there
were about 500 Chinese sisters (popularly called ‘nuns’) in China in 1906, including
those who had joined foreign religious orders, they were largely confined to institu-
tional work in orphanages, old-age asylums, hospitals and schools. Consequently,
Chinese virgins continued to play a significant role in direct evangelisation after 1900,
carrying the gospel to all strata of Chinese society. Between 3000 and 4000 indigenous
female lay (Catholic) workers were engaged in the conversion process throughout the
country at this time.34 During the early decades of the twentieth century, the virgins
continued to provide follow-up and longer-term faith-nurture to complement male
evangelism. As the eminent Catholic mission historian Johannes Beckmann observed,
‘The [male] catechist sows the seed of the gospel only in passing; in order to let it come
up and mature, often also to not let it be stifled, the help of the virgins is required’.35
However, given the experiences of the past, the missionary establishment placed
greater emphasis on proper training and the observance of ‘rules for virgins’. Increas-
ingly, in the larger mission stations, European sisters were installed to exercise spiritual
control over the virgins. In certain vicariates special schools were set up where these
native apostles acquired sufficient literacy and a superficial knowledge of the Chinese
classics as well as rudimentary medical expertise.36 Yet in spite of increased surveillance
and training, the European missionaries continued to regard these indispensable
women with suspicion:
This training of Christian virgins was always a thorny question in China, a compli-
cated problem that found as many different solutions as there were missionaries
longing to solve it completely. Often the results left much to be desired so that in some
missions the institute of Christian virgins, living at home or in small communities,
was felt to be a necessary evil.37
Given the continued importance of the institute of virgins in the China Catholic
missions at the beginning of the twentieth century, it is worth discussing in greater
detail such matters as recruitment and training, the rules which virgins were expected
508 R.G. Tiedemann
to observe, and the scope of their work. The following is largely based on information
emanating from two areas of North China, namely the vicariates apostolic of North
Shandong (Franciscans)38 and South Shandong (Society of the Divine Word, or SVD).
While a high degree of uniformity prevailed throughout the Catholic missions in
China, based on various instructions issued by Propaganda Fide in Rome, certain vari-
ations can nevertheless be discerned. Moreover, in North China most Catholic
converts were made in the regional peripheries. Here the rural populations were in
some ways more conservative than in the south yet at the same time had not been fully
integrated into the Confucian order of things.

Recruitment and Acceptance

Unlike the commercialised and affluent Jiangnan area or the Pearl River delta, rela-
tively poor North China certainly offered unattached women few opportunities to
achieve financial self-reliance. Hence the phenomenon of (non-Christian) sworn spin-
sterhood was virtually unknown in this part of the country. Since reliance on female
auxiliary workers in the mission was of crucial importance, the Franciscans of North
Shandong preferred to accept virgins from the ‘better classes’, for ‘poor people in rags’
did not have much standing in local communities.39 Moreover, in view of the virgins’
expected economic independence, they had to rely on their families for material
support.
Any request for admittance to the institute of virgins, with the backing of the local
missionary, had to be approved by the bishop (in later years, the dean). Admittance was
to be refused if it might result in discord in the family. This was important, for the
parents were expected to set aside a dwelling and a piece of land, the income of which
would be sufficient to support the virgin and ensure total devotion to her religious
vocation. Furthermore, the virgin should have the right to dispose of the land as she
saw fit. According to the legal tradition of late imperial China, normally only sons
could inherit property. Daughters merely received a dowry at the time of their
marriage. Thus, if any of the brothers did not agree to the transfer of land prior to a
young woman’s acceptance into the institute of virgins, enmity and discord might arise
after their parents’ demise. Consequently, a deed of transfer had to be signed by the
applicant’s parents as well as her brothers (or, if she had no brothers, those who were
recognised as designated heirs according to Chinese law). Finally, after a Christian of
good reputation had agreed to stand surety, the local missionary put his signature to
the document.40 Since virgins had sufficient land to meet their personal needs, they
received substantially less remuneration from the mission than male catechists who
had a family to feed. Naturally, the above-mentioned property arrangement to ensure
economic independence of virgins did not apply to those applicants who had been
brought up in Catholic orphanages.
While the missionary was not to interfere in internal family matters during the
preliminary discussions, he had to ensure that only those young women were accepted
who really intended to serve God in a special way and were prepared to devote their
lives to service in the mission. Thus he had to ascertain that no other factors were at
 Women’s History Review 509
work, such as the expectation of a comfortable life, or seeking admittance as a question
of ‘face’. Nor was marriage resistance as such a sufficient reason for becoming a
guniang.41
Especially in newly established missions, such rigorous selection was not always
possible. When the SVD missionaries commenced their work in South Shandong in
1882, they were not yet in a position to employ local lay personnel. Instead, male and
female catechists had to be brought in from neighbouring vicariates. But it would seem
that their quality left much to be desired. As Provicar DeMarchi of North Shandong
admitted, the first SVD missionaries had to work with people who for one reason or
another had been dismissed in other missions.42 On the other hand, Johann Baptist
Anzer, the future vicar apostolic of South Shandong, is reported to have enticed virgins
who were sitting idly at home in the old Christian communities of North Shandong
to come to his vicariate, to the annoyance of the Franciscan friars.43 But from these
small and uncertain beginnings a local institute of virgins gradually developed in South
Shandong.

Training
In North Shandong a woman could be admitted at nineteen years of age. Thereupon
she had to complete a four-year probation period, during which time the novices were
indistinguishable in appearance from other young unmarried women, except for their
simple clothing and absence of jewellery. They were assigned a special place in church
and were able to take part in the exercises for virgins. They were also required to follow
a rigorous programme of education. As a Capuchin friar in Gansu province put it:
‘Through careful education of the candidates, through solid ascetic training, above all
through strict discipline and the postponement of the private vows to their 21st or 22nd
year of their life, the heads of the mission seek to eliminate with utmost rigour the
useless elements from the start’.44 In earlier times candidates had attended the
mission’s schools for catechists, but by the republican period they were expected to
attain a higher standard and complete elementary school. Although the principal
emphasis was placed on religious instruction, most virgins had acquired a sufficient
level of literacy to enable them to read all Christian books without difficulty, with good
comprehension of the religious message. Especially in rural settings, they were thus far
better educated than the great majority of Chinese women. Moreover, it was recogn-
ised that the missionary enterprise had to keep up with progress in China. As the
general educational standard improved countrywide, young women intending to join
the institute of virgins, too, were expected to study longer and attain a higher level of
knowledge. These better qualified virgins would be used in evangelistic work amongst
the upper classes and educated people.45
Upon completion of the novitiate, the women adopted the special hairstyle of
Christian virgins (or guniang). After another three years of probation, they made a
promise (propositum) to the missionary to observe chastity. On that occasion, the
blessing took place of the black veil which they would henceforth wear regularly in
church as a mark of distinction. Upon completing their thirty-sixth year of age, they
510 R.G. Tiedemann
could take the vow of chastity for one year at a time.46 In order to ensure religious
consistency among the virgins of North Shandong, they were all members of the Third
Order of St Francis.47
In South Shandong young women had to be eighteen years old before they could be
accepted as candidates, marked by being required to wear a blue veil in church. After
two years of worthy conduct they were given a black veil, the sign of celibacy, and
entered the novitiate. They made their simple temporal vows of chastity for one year
upon completion of their twenty-fifth year, renewable annually on the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception. Having reached her thirtieth year, a virgin could make her
temporal vows for three years, and her perpetual vow of chastity when forty years old.
However, the perpetual vow could only be made if an adequate ‘dowry’ had been
arranged.48 This requirement confirms that these women generally came from more
affluent families. Exceptions could be made by the bishop where a virgin ‘really seems
to have been chosen by God’ but poverty precluded a ‘dowry’.49

Rules
In the Chinese missions the lives of virgins were governed by a detailed set of spiritual
and disciplinary rules. The ‘Rule for Virgins’ of the SVD mission of South Shandong,
consisting of seven chapters, instructed the virgins to avoid idleness, to dress modestly,
not to gossip and above all ‘to fear unchastity like a poisonous snake’. The virtue of
purity was encouraged, including the observance of the segregation of the sexes. Since
they had dedicated themselves to God, virgins were expected practise internal as well
as external mortification, patience, self-sacrifice and charity. Naturally, the importance
of daily prayers and other religious observances and practices was stressed. As concerns
external deportment, modesty was emphasised to ensure that the ‘lily of purity
would not wither’. The rules for visiting the priest are set out in detail, as are those in
connection with the virgins’ apostolic work.50

Scope of Work
Virgins were expected to perform a variety of duties. During their younger years they
were generally involved in institutional work at the larger mission stations. The more
gifted ones taught in catechism schools. Others became teachers in orphanages. Virgins
without special abilities and knowledge instructed orphans in domestic work. Yet the
great majority returned to the countryside where they undertook religious work in
villages that were rarely visited by Catholic priests. Some of these unwed women lived
in ‘virgin houses’ near the village chapel (gongsuo). Others continued to live secluded
lives in their parents’ homes where they taught other members of the family to perform
their daily prayers, ensured regular attendance at the Mass, frequentation of the sacra-
ments and familiarity with the teachings of the church in general.51 Usually they were
also responsible for cleaning and decorating the village church. The best and most
competent older virgins were employed as catechists at outstations or in their natal
villages. They undertook the difficult task of evangelisation, teaching interested females
 Women’s History Review 511
the basics of Christianity, such as making the sign of the cross and reciting short
prayers. They would present new believers with medallions and religious pictures,
helping them discard ‘superstitious’ images and ‘pagan’ incense burners, since the
neophytes generally did not ‘have the courage to insult the spirits’.52 After these initial
preparations, the virgin-catechists instructed the women and girls more thoroughly in
one of the periodic catechumenates, which, according to Chinese custom, could not be
undertaken by men. This required a great deal of wisdom, eloquence and prayer, as
well as patience, it was observed, since many rural women were rather sensitive and
unusually dense.53
According to the statutes of the vicariate apostolic of Tsinanfu (North Shandong),
female virgin-catechists had to be at least thirty-six years of age. Lange added that these
guniang were generally held in high esteem by catechumens and non-Christians on
account of their celibate status, but also because of their exemplary behaviour and solid
academic training. He conceded that the latter was not as comprehensive as that of
male catechists, for they did not have to face the same difficulties and doubts that male
enquirers would raise. But the good friar added that the mission had a good many
virgins who were quite capable of dealing with any kind of question. Moreover, virgins
generally showed far greater zeal and more exemplary behaviour than the male
catechists. Some of the older women especially, by their devotion to their vocation,
encouraged a good many neophyte girls to join them later.54
It should be pointed out that much of the work performed by virgins overlapped
with that of other female workers in the mission. Consequently the terminology in
missionary writings can be ambiguous. The category of ‘female catechists’, for instance,
usually included virgins, but not all female catechists were members of the institute of
virgins.55 There would also be occasions when virgins found themselves baptising
dying children, most notably in orphanages. But they should not be confused with
female ‘baptisers’ who went from village to village in order to baptise moribund
infants, often secretly, by washing the child’s forehead with a sponge while uttering the
baptismal formula. They were usually older women, many of them widows, with some
rudimentary medical knowledge.56

Relations within the Missions

As has already been observed, some virgins performed the same kind of work as the
Catholic sisters of indigenous religious associations (in girls’ schools, orphanages and
hospitals). Note, for example, that the Oblates of the Holy Family, an indigenous reli-
gious congregation with simple vows founded in South Shandong in 1910, were work-
ing like the guniang in small rural communities in the health service, in schools and in
the formation (i.e. training) of neophytes. Indeed, in time some virgins began to
request acceptance into either a European religious order or the indigenous diocesan
religious congregations. In the South Shandong towns with larger welfare institutions,
for example, the European missionary sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS), had
been training Chinese assistants from among the institute of virgins. In 1927 Bishop
Augustin Henninghaus united these ‘aggregates’ into an indigenous congregation of
512 R.G. Tiedemann
sisters, the Auxiliaries in the Propagation of the Faith, or ‘Helpers’ for short. They
remained primarily assistants to the European sisters but were trained with a view to
the future, to manage larger welfare institutions by themselves.57 By 1910 it was, there-
fore, no longer simply a question of controlling and subordinating the virgins by
combining them into Christian sisterhoods. Rather than insisting on maintaining their
autonomy, some guniang actively sought to join such religious associations.58
However, the relationship between Chinese virgins and the European priests and
sisters was not always problem-free, especially during their initial encounter. Writing
from the large rural mission station of Poli, South Shandong, one European SSpS
member hinted that there had been friction between the established virgins and her
missionary order newly arrived from Germany shortly after 1900: ‘Relations with the
Chinese virgins are now also much better than in the beginning’.59 A year later the same
sister wrote, again not specifying the original problem: ‘Our old [virgin] Philomena has
also changed. She no longer wants to be mistress but be guided only by obedience’.60
At least initially, certain cultural differences between the European sisters and the
Chinese virgins came to the fore. For instance, the foreign sisters complained that the
virgins ignored the practice of clausura, thus not respecting that part of the convent
reserved exclusively to the SSpS sisters and inaccessible to outsiders.61 Foot-binding
constituted another disputed custom: at the beginning of the twentieth century, the
virgins in charge of the Poli orphanage for girls continued to insist on binding the girls’
feet, something the German sisters had reluctantly to accept.62 Such disparities
emerged at the very beginning of the training programme. As Sister Antonella Götzken,
SSpS observed in the remote Gansu province on the eve of the Anti-Japanese War
(1937), most of the candidates wishing to enter the institute of virgins were young,
uneducated girls from the countryside. Giving them a very basic education and teach-
ing them even basic routines required a great deal of patience. For many girls the
constant imposition of discipline was difficult to accept. Often the foreign sisters’ insis-
tence on cleanliness became a stumbling block. Strict rules, such as washing oneself
every day, changing undergarments once a week, and cleaning the floor with water and
a cloth, caused great astonishment amongst the newly arrived candidates. They were
particularly puzzled, she added, by the fact that there was not even a place in the class-
room where one could hide some garlic or an onion. However, Sister Antonella was
able to report that in time these difficulties were overcome and gradual improvements
noted in educational attainment and discipline. By the time some of the girls were
ready to enter the institute of virgins, they had completed four years of elementary
school. ‘That was precious little, but had to suffice if need be.’63
At the same time, relapses occurred from time to time even amongst those who had
successfully completed their training programme. This may have been more prevalent
among women who were employed in the widely dispersed rural Catholic communi-
ties, where they operated for long periods without religious guidance and were thus
exposed to many temptations.64 To guard against laxity, the Capuchin mission in
Gansu province, for example, gathered all virgins at an annual retreat for one month at
the Tianshui central residence to have them take part in religious exercises, refresh their
knowledge and renew their vows.65 However, given the number of virgins and the
 Women’s History Review 513
paucity of supervisory personnel, it is not surprising that occasionally more serious fail-
ures did occur, as the following oblique reference to evidently unacceptable behaviour
of a virgin indicates: ‘We decided to intervene smartly and stante pede (immediately)
and gave the poor fallen woman ten days to find herself a mother-in-law’.66

Conclusion
As the extended discussion above has indicated, relations between foreign priests and
Chinese converts were not always harmonious. Although most missionaries recognised
the importance of ‘native agency’, their relations with and attitudes toward Chinese
priests and Christian lay leaders were often ambiguous and fraught with tension. In the
nineteenth century, the indigenous clergy, with few exceptions, was expected to play a
subordinate role in the expanding missionary enterprise. However, especially after
1900, resentment grew among the native clergy because of the continuing ‘racial arro-
gance of the Europeans’,67 which perpetuated inequality and barred Chinese priests
from leadership positions within the church.
Equality was obviously not an issue in the necessarily more distant relationship
between missionary priests and Catholic virgins. Not only were these laywomen outside
the regular church hierarchy, but Chinese cultural norms also demanded that they
observe the rules of gender segregation. This was of the utmost importance, because
Chinese non-Christians were quick to accuse Catholic men and women of intermin-
gling indiscriminately and, by implication, of sexually deviant behaviour. Such percep-
tions were reinforced when sexual transgressions did occur from time to time. Thus, in
1834 the Portuguese priest Domingos-José de Santo Estêvam Henriques informed
Propaganda Fide of ‘bad [Chinese] priests’ in his jurisdiction, some of whom he
accused of ‘bad conduct with [Catholic] virgins’.68 Given the sensitive nature of such
incidents, the sources do not provide much detail. However, in order to prevent such
illicit encounters, the relevant ecclesiastical authorities issued fairly detailed rules. The
Rule for Virgins in the vicariate apostolic of South Shandong, for instance, sets out very
clearly in Chapter 6 (‘Rules for Visits to the Priest’) how the virgins were to conduct
themselves. Such meetings were to take place only when absolutely necessary, always in
the company of another virgin inside the church and with the church door open. ‘She
must appear self-effacing and courteous before the priest, speak with a moderate voice,
avoid loud laughter. She should not approach him too closely and show reverence in
her demeanour. At her leave-taking, she requests his blessing.’69 It is clear that for a
variety of reasons there was considerable social as well as physical distance between
foreign priests and the guniang. In any case, most Catholic virgins were living in rural
communities that were rather infrequently visited by the missionaries.
On the other hand, as foreign women religious began to arrive in greater numbers,
some of the Chinese virgins had the opportunity to interact with them at the major
mission stations where the foreign sisters were based. As already demonstrated, the
cultural gulf between more sophisticated foreigners and simple peasant girls from the
villages could be quite substantial, especially during the virgins’ training phase. Still,
occasional differences between them notwithstanding, the foreign women’s dedication
514 R.G. Tiedemann
to service, rigorous penitence and contemplation proved attractive to many Catholic
virgins. Starting in 1855, young Chinese Catholic women increasingly opted for lives
of spiritual perfection in formal religious communities. They joined either existing
European and North American religious institutes or the new Chinese sisterhoods. The
latter were essentially religious congregations in the making, ranging from loose asso-
ciations of virgins to quasi-religious communities and associations of diocesan right.
These last were the most advanced, usually with constitutions approved by Propaganda
Fide. However, none of these Chinese religious institutes had received formal papal
approbation by 1950, when the missionary era came to an end on the Chinese main-
land. Unfortunately, the available statistics do not sufficiently distinguish between
these two strands, as they include both Chinese sisters in foreign-established religious
congregations and those in Chinese associations that had become to varying degrees
‘institutionalised’. In 1940, according to the records, there were 2457 foreign and 4472
Chinese sisters at work in China. In 1950, after ten years of war, 2095 foreign women
religious remained while the number of Chinese sisters had risen somewhat to 4832.
The total number of Catholics in China was just under 3.3 million in 1950.70
Still, the guniang had not disappeared. Occasional disappointments and priestly
concerns notwithstanding, by the 1930s the institute of virgins had developed into an
essential component of the missionary enterprise in China. According to a German
Capuchin friar in Gansu province, the missionary’s task was made much easier when
assisted by an older, experienced virgin who was not afraid even to admonish the priest.
He summed up the virgins’ contribution as follows:
The experienced virgin is a good support to the missionary in the administration of
the district, a reliable adviser who alerts him to disorder, grievances and dangers that
can threaten him from various directions. Since she is more intimately bound up with
the affairs of the Church than all other indigenous missionary helpers, she is more
honest, her character purer. She enjoys the trust of many; is well informed, knows how
to weigh up what she has heard, and therefore her opinion is generally fairly close to
the real state of affairs.71
Given the virgins’ significant contribution to the propagation of the Christian faith
in China, it is regrettable that today we only have a superficial collective image of their
work. Whereas there are thousands of missionary biographies, hardly any individual
life-stories exist for Chinese Catholic virgins. (Among the few exceptions is the story of
Petronilla Chen [or Tein in the Fu’an dialect] who was born c.1625 into a rich non-
Christian family at Xiapu, Fujian, but who consecrated her virginity to God at the age
of eighteen.)72 Indeed, the study of native female agency in Catholic missions in China
after 1800 is still in its infancy, although several unexplored sources exist for further
research.73 Among the nearly ninety Chinese martyrs canonised on 1 October 2000,
there were a few virgins, including Agatha Lin Zhao (1817–57) and Lucia Yi Zhenmei
(1815–62), for whom biographical sketches were produced.74
What motivated a Catholic girl to become a guniang? Were the reasons similar to
those of the non-Christian zishunü (sworn spinsters)? To what extent was it a means of
transcending marginality? As far as those who entered the non-Christian ‘sworn spin-
sterhood’ are concerned, Maria Jaschok has sought to examine, among other things,
 Women’s History Review 515
the reasons for their choice of a particular lifestyle, sources of livelihood, and practices
and customs which can be said to have formed a part of zishunü culture. She suggests
that the notion of ‘purity’, both in terms of general cleanliness in their appearance and
surroundings as well as in their conduct of relations with men, provided the single
women with a socially acceptable and respectable status that influenced their social
conduct in daily routines and religious worship (i.e. worshipping Guanyin, the
Goddess of Mercy, who in the form of Miaoshan had foregone marriage), creating
meaning that transcended the cultural strictures society placed on the lives of all
women.75
Like such ‘traditional’ spinsters, the Catholic virgins, too, took the vow of chastity
with the dual intention of leading perfect Christian lives and devoting themselves to
service in the mission. While the guniang were accepted in Catholic communities, the
existence of similar non-Christian associations may have made them more tolerable
also within Chinese society at large. The Christian virgins, too, adopted a special hair-
style as a mark of distinction. It should be noted, however, that whereas the zishunü
phenomenon has so far been found only in parts of South China (and perhaps in the
area around Shanghai), Catholic missionaries sought to establish the ‘institute of
virgins’ in every province of China. Both traditions of ‘marriage resistance’, whether
Catholic or non-Christian, were originally prevalent in elite households, but in time
spread to the lower strata as well. Although the Western missionaries did not stress
these motives, the position of ‘virgin’ offered not only a vocation but also a degree of
economic independence. Work as a teacher in a girls’ school or as a catechist in the
villages often provided an individual identity. Besides, literacy brought social status.
Finally, in spite of the centralising and subordinating efforts of the ecclesiastical hier-
archy, the majority of the indigenous female agents remained part of the institute of
Christian virgins, thereby preserving a degree of local autonomy within the universal
church. Thus, while both forms of ‘marriage resistance’ were rather marginal in the
overall Chinese family-oriented social system, the Catholic institute of virgins, as an
important element of the missionary enterprise in China, deserves to receive greater
recognition.

Notes
[1] Les vierges Présentandines du Kiangnan, Relations de Chine, 6 (Jan–Apr 1919), p. 161. All
1

quotation translations from French and German in the article are the author’s own.
[2] For a fuller selection of terms in early modern Fujian province, see Eugenio Menegon (2001)
2

Penance, Chastity and Common Rituals in the Christian Community of Fuan in Late Imperial
Fujian, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago,
24 March 2001, p. 20.
[3] Editorial in Tripod, 21 (Spring, 2001), p. 3. For a critique of this kind of simplistic writing, see,
3

for example, J[ennifer] Holmgren (1981) Myth, Fantasy or Scholarship: images of the status
of women in traditional China, Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, pp. 147–170, especially
p. 154: ‘It seems that like some early missionary writings and 20th century Chinese works on
the status of women in Confucian or traditional China, much of the present day feminist and
popular literature on China is less concerned with historical accuracy than with providing
models for emancipation’.
516 R.G. Tiedemann
[4] In 1815 there were only 80 European missionaries and 89 Chinese priests in China. Johannes
4

Beckmann, SMB (1946) Die Lage der katholischen Missionen in China um 1815, Neue
Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft, 2, pp. 217–223.
[5] The administrators (huizhang) appear to be more or less identical to the ‘sedentary catechists’
5

mentioned by some authors.

[6] Noël Golvers (1998) Le rôle de la femme dans la mission catholique au dix-septième siècle au
6

Jiangnan: Philippe Couplet et sa biographie de Candida Xu (°1607–†1680), Courrier Verbiest,

10 (June), pp. 5–7; Gail King (1998) Candida Xu and the Growth of Christianity in China in
the Seventeenth Century, Monumenta Serica, 46, pp. 49–66.
[7] Nicholas Standaert (Ed.) (2000) Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800
7

(Leiden: Brill), p. 394.

[8] Menegon, ‘Penance, Chastity and Common Rituals’, pp. 19–20. See also Benno Biermann, OP
8

(1927) Die Anfänge der neueren Dominikanermission in China (Münster: Aschendorffsche

Verlagsbuchhandlung), pp. 163–165; Fidel Villarroel, OP (1993) Religiosas Misioneras de
Santo Domingo. Un Siglo de Apostolado (1887–1987) (Rome: Typografia Vaticana), pp. 11 and
133. Villarroel explains that the term beata originally referred to a religious of the Beaterio
(i.e. Convent) de Santa Catalina in Manila, Philippines. In Spain, too, some convents were
known as beaterios.
[9] Except for the dioceses of Macao, Beijing and Nanjing, which were subject to Portuguese royal
9

patronage (padroado) until their dissolution in 1856, Catholic mission territories in China
were called vicariates or prefectures apostolic and were under the direct control of the
Vatican. Vicars apostolic and prefects apostolic were the church officials in charge of such
ecclesiastical circumscriptions.
[10] For a detailed discussion of developments in eighteenth-century Sichuan, see Robert E.
10

Entenmann (1996) Christian Virgins in Eighteenth-Century Sichuan, in Daniel H. Bays (Ed.)

Christianity in China: from the eighteenth century to the present (Stanford: Stanford University
Press), pp. 180–193.
[11] This synod was conducted at Chongqing by Bishop Gabriel-Taurin Dufresse, MEP (1750–
11

1815) together with thirteen Chinese and one other European priest (two Europeans and
six Chinese, living in remoter parts of Sichuan, were not able to attend). For details, see
Josef Metzler, OMI (1980) Die Synoden in China, Japan und Korea 1570–1931 (Paderborn:
Ferdinand Schöningh), pp. 43–55.
[12] Sexually promiscuous Buddhist nuns frequently appear in Chinese vernacular literature of the
12

late imperial era. See Andrea S. Goldman (2001) The Nun Who Wouldn’t Be: representations
of female desire in two performance genres of ‘Si Fan’, Late Imperial China, 22 (June), p. 71.
See also Susan Mann (1997) Precious Records: women in China’s long eighteenth century
(Stanford: Stanford University Press), p. 192.
[13] Maria H. A. Jaschok (1984) On the Lives of Women Unwed by Choice in Pre-Communist
13

China: research in progress, Republican China, 10 (November), p. 45.

[14] The custom of delayed transfer marriage (buluojia) involved the return of brides to their
14

natal homes soon after the marriage ceremony. They settled in their conjugal homes only after
the onset of their first pregnancies. In some instances, ‘bridedaughters’ who had sufficient
resources of their own provided financial support to enable their husbands to acquire
concubines and thereby extend the interval of spousal separation and celibacy. See Robert Y.
Eng (1990) Luddism and Labor Protest among Silk Artisans and Workers in Jiangnan and
Guangdong, 1860–1930, Late Imperial China, 11 (December), p. 79; Helen F. Siu (1990)
Where Were the Women? Rethinking Marriage Resistance and Regional Culture in South
China, Late Imperial China, 11 (December), pp. 33–35.
[15] Janice E. Stockard (1989) Daughters of the Canton Delta: marriage patterns and economic strat-
15

egies in south China, 1860–1930 (Stanford: Stanford University Press), p. 70. In Mandarin
Chinese (or putonghua), the terms jihso neuih and sohei are zishunü and shuqi, respectively.
[16] Jaschok, ‘On the Lives of Women’, p. 46.
16
 Women’s History Review 517
[17] Eng, ‘Luddism and Labor Protest’, p. 84.
17

[18] Roxann Prazniak (1986) Weavers and Sorceresses of Chuansha: the societal origins of political
18

activism among rural Chinese women, Modern China, 12 (April), p. 202.

[19] Ibid., p. 204.
19

[20] The present focus on spinsterhood in specific parts of China notwithstanding, it should be
20

noted that in the country as a whole marriage was nearly universal for women, particularly in
the countryside. Although after 1900 ‘marriage resistance’ became more widespread in urban
centres, a field study conducted in rural China in 1929–31 indicated that fewer than one
woman in a thousand never married. George W. Barclay et al. (1976) A Reassessment of the
Demography of Traditional Rural China, Population Index, 42 (October), pp. 606–635.
[21] Quoted in Joseph de la Servière, SJ (1914) Histoire de la Mission du Kiang-nan, vol. I (Shanghai:
21

Zikawei), p. 92.
[22] Joseph de la Servière, SJ (1914) Histoire de la Mission du Kiang-nan, vol. II: Mgr Borgniet
22

(1856–1862) Mgr Languillat (1864–1878) (Shanghai: Zikawei), pp. 106–107. According to de

la Servière, Histoire, vol. I, pp. 93–96, 107, the attack on the Portuguese role in Chinese eccle-
siastical affairs contributed to the conflict. In view of the loss of income from Macao as a
result of the Propaganda’s attempt to transform the Portuguese padroado diocese of Nanjing
into a vicariate apostolic under the direct control of Rome, some local Chinese priests
supported the Portuguese position. One of them, Matthaeus Shen Jinglun (Sequeira), CM
(c.1790–1879), since 1844 priest at Songjiang, had encouraged the Christians in their struggle
against de Besi. See also the biographical note for Shen in J. Van den Brandt, CM (1935) Les
Lazaristes en Chine 1697–1935. Notes biographigues, 69 (Beijing), p. 27. There are indications
that tensions between European and Chinese priests existed also in other parts of China. The
long-term implications of these less than harmonious relations await more detailed study.
[23] The first group of new Jesuit priests arrived in 1842, but it was not until 1856 that the diocese
23

of Nanjing had finally been turned into the vicariate apostolic of Jiangnan (comprising the
provinces of Jiangsu and Anhui) under their care. See de la Servière, Histoire, vol. I, pp. 49–50.
[24] Thomas A. Breslin (1980) China, American Catholicism and the Missionary (University Park
24

and London: Pennsylvania State University Press), p. 13.

[25] Metzler, Die Synoden in China, p. 55.
25

[26] Eric O. Hanson (1979) Political Aspects of Chinese Catholicism, in James D. Whitehead,
26

Yu-ming Shaw & N. J. Girardot (Eds) China and Christianity: historical and future encounters
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press), p. 139. For further details, see de la Servière,
Histoire, vol. I, pp. 91–92.
[27] Details in Johannes Beckmann, SMB (1931) Die katholische Missionsmethode in China in
27

neuester Zeit (1842–1912). Geschichtliche Untersuchung über Arbeitsweisen, ihre Hindernisse

und Erfolge (Immensee: Verlag des Missionshauses Bethlehem), p. 85.
[28] It could be argued that women were more easily controlled when in an organised sisterhood,
28

on account of a Rule and integration into a hierarchical structure. At that time, the unorgan-
ised virgins still enjoyed much autonomy, remote from and not easily controlled by the
missionary priest, whose authority they could challenge in particular locations, as was the case
in the 1830s and 1840s.
[29] The first European sisters for service in China arrived in 1848, namely the Sisters of St Paul of
29

Chartres, who established a base in Hong Kong. In the same year the first Daughters of Charity
of St Vincent de Paul settled in Macao, but the Portuguese authorities forced them to transfer
to Ningbo in 1852. The Canossian Daughters of Charity arrived in Hong Kong in 1860. The
Helpers of the Holy Souls established their first foundation at Shanghai in 1867. In 1875
Sisters of Providence began their work in Manchuria and the first Franciscan Missionaries of
Mary arrived in China in 1886. All these European congregations would in time spread from
their initial bases to other cities of China. After 1900 many more European and American
female religious congregations arrived in China. For a complete list of foreign religious
communities of women in China, see R. G. Tiedemann (2008) Reference Guide to Christian
518 R.G. Tiedemann
Missionary Societies in China: from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, Part Two (Armonk:
M. E. Sharpe), Part Two.
[30] Such religious congregations consisted of Chinese women who, after a novitiate, took one or
30

several vows and were organisationally controlled by a mother superior.

[31] Die gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in China, Die katholischen Missionen, 35 (1906–07), p. 127.
31

[32] For a reasonably complete record of the diocesan female religious congregations in China, see
32

the specific entries in Les Missions de Chine, Seizième Année (1940–1941) (Shanghai: Procure
des Lazaristes). For most of these organisations brief entries are found in Guerrino Pelliccia
& Giancarlo Rocca (Eds) (1974–1997) Dizionario degli istituti di perfezione, 9 vols (Rome:
Edizioni paoline). See also Tiedemann (2008) Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies
in China, Part Three: Roman Catholic: Chinese Religious Communities of Women (Associa-
tions of Diocesan Right).
[33] Joseph Schmidlin (1931) Catholic Mission Theory [Katholische Missionslehre im Grundriss]
33

(Techny, IL: Mission Press SVD), p. 314.

[34] See ‘Die gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in China’, p. 127. In addition, some 600 European sisters
34

were engaged in institutional work in China at this time.

[35] Beckmann, Die katholische Missionsmethode, p. 84.
35

[36] Ibid., p. 86.

36

[37] Louis-Marie Kervyn (1911) Méthode de l’apostolat moderne en Chine (Hong Kong: Imprime-
37

rie de la Société des Missions-Etrangères), p. 559.

[38] As a result of subsequent divisions of North Shandong, the actual information comes from
38

the vicariate apostolic of Tsinanfu.

[39] Vitalis Lange, OFM (1929) Das Apostolische Vikariat Tsinanfu. Franziskanische Missionsarbeit
39

in China (Werl: Provinzial-Missionsverwaltung), p. 98. In the Jiangnan mission, too, of the

820 virgins in 1914, many were ‘de bonnes filles de vieilles familles chrétiennes à l’aise’. See Les
Vierges Présentandines du Kiang-nan, p. 161.
[40] Lange, Das Apostolische Vikariat Tsinanfu, pp. 99–100.
40

[41] Ibid., p. 100. On the missionary’s role, see also Kervyn, Méthode de l’apostolat moderne en
41

Chine, p. 557.
[42] DeMarchi to Bishop Eligio Cosi, 7 July 1883, in Richard Hartwich, SVD (1983) Steyler
42

Missionare in China, vol. I: Missionarische Erschliessung Südshantungs 1870–1903. Beiträge zu

einer Geschichte (St Augustin: Steyler Verlag), p. 52.
[43] Anton Volpert, Erinnerungen. Lebensdaten eines vielgeprüften Chinamissionars, mentioned
43

in Hartwich, Steyler Missionare in China, vol. I, p. 52.

[44] Balduin Wüst, OFMCap (1938) Dienst der Gottgeweihten Jungfrau, in Gonsalvus Walter,
44

OFMCap (Ed.) Gotteskampf auf Gelber Erde. Festgabe zum Silbernen Bischofsjubiläum Sr.
Exzellenz Salvator Petrus Walleser O.M. Cap. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh), p. 21.
[45] In the Capuchin Mission of Gansu, a few candidates were sent to Xi’an, the provincial capital,
45

for advanced studies in the 1930s. See Sister Antonella (Maria Götzken), SSpS, Ausbildung
der Katechistinnen, in ibid., p. 219.
[46] Lange, Das Apostolische Vikariat Tsinanfu, p. 100.
46

[47] Ibid., p. 99. The Third Order Secular of Saint Francis is an association of the lay faithful who
47

strive to achieve perfection in the world, under the direction of the Franciscan Order and
according to its spirit, but in a manner suited to life in the world.
[48] Hermann Fischer (1940) Augustin Henninghaus (Steyl: Missionsdruckerei), p. 261 For further
48

details, see the SVD ‘Rule for Virgins’, reprinted in Fritz Bornemann, SVD (1977) Der selige
P. J. Freinademetz 1852–1908. Ein Steyler Missionar. Ein Lebensbild nach zeitgenössischen
Ouellen (Bozen: Freinademetz-Haus), pp. 1094–1095.
[49] Bornemann, Der selige P. J. Freinademetz, p. 1095.
49

[50] Text of German and Latin translations in ibid., pp. 1094–1106.

50

[51] Les Vierges Présentandines du Kiang-nan, p. 161. It seems reasonable to assume that only
51

affluent Christian families could afford to have an unmarried female member assume these
 Women’s History Review 519
responsibilities. A favourable account of the institute of virgins in Jiangnan in the 1850s is
found in [Nicolas] Broullion, SJ (1855) Missions de Chine. Mémoire sur l’état actuel de la
mission du Kiang-nan 1842–1855 (Paris: Julien, Lanier et Cie), p. 205.
[52] Wüst, ‘Dienst der Gottgeweihten Jungfrau’, p. 214.
52

[53] Ibid.
53

[54] Lange, Das Apostolische Vikariat Tsinanfu, p. 101. In South Shandong virgins had to be thirty
54

years old before they were permitted to work as evangelists. Those under thirty could work at
an outstation only alongside an older virgin or a widow-catechist. See ‘Rules for Virgins’ in
Bornemann, Der selige P. J. Freinademetz, p. 1100.
[55] Since the records of the two Shandong missions are mainly in German, the term Jungfrau has
55

an ambiguous meaning. Sometimes it is employed to mean ‘unmarried young woman’ and

sometimes it means ‘virgin’ in the religious sense used in this article.
[56] Rudolf Pieper (1900) Unkraut, Knospen und Blüten aus dem blumigen Reiche der Mitte (Steyl:
56

Missionsdruckerei), pp. 503–504.

[57] Fischer, Augustin Henninghaus, p. 261.
57

[58] Note, for instance, that the virgins at the Poli station, South Shandong, were requesting to be
58

allowed to join the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit. Sister Blandina (Anna
Mairon) to Mother Superior Theresia, Poli, 20 October 1905, quoted in Richard Hartwich,
SVD (1985) Steyler Missionare in China, vol. II: Bischof A. Henninghaus ruft Steyler Schwestern
1904–1910 (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag), p. 197.
[59] Ibid.
59

[60] Bairon to Mother Theresia, Poli, 6 August 1906, in Hartwich, Steyler Missionare in China,
60

vol. II, p. 202.

[61] Sister Dolorosa (Luise Schotenröhr) to Mother Theresia, Yanzhou, 24 October 1905, in
61

Hartwich, Steyler Missionare in China, vol. II, p. 132.

[62] Blandina to Mother Theresia, Poli, 12 November 1906, in ibid., p. 199.
62

[63] Sister Antonella, ‘Ausbildung der Katechistinnen’, pp. 217–218.

63

[64] See, for example, Henninghaus to Blum, Yanzhou, 28 August 1911, in Richard Hartwich, SVD
64

(1987) Steyler Missionare in China, vol. III, Republik China und Erster Weltkrieg 1911–1919
(Nettetal: Steyler Verlag), p. 57.
[65] Sister Antonella, ‘Ausbildung der Katechistinnen’, p. 218.
65

[66] Georg Fröwis, SVD, diary, Juzhou, 23 Ocober 1903, cited in Hartwich, Steyler Missionare in
66

China, vol. I, p. 519.

[67] Johannes Beckmann (1955) Einheimischer Klerus und Rassenfrage, Neue Zeitschrift für
67

Missionswissenschaft, 11, p. 6.
[68] Henriques, report dated 15 February 1835, mentioned in Ignazio Song (1968) Mons. Lodovico
68

de Besi, missionario in Cina (Dissertatio ad Lauream, Gregorian University, Rome), p. 19. For
instances of European priests seducing Catholic women, see D. E. Mungello (2001) The Spirit
and the Flesh in Shandong, 1650–1785 (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield). See also Lars Peter
Laamann (2006) Christian Heretics in Late Imperial China: Christian inculturation and state
control, 1720–1850 (Abingdon and New York: Routledge), pp. 111–113, concerning the
confession of the Chinese priest Paulus Van [Wang?].
[69] Bornemann, Der selige P. J. Freinademetz, p. 1100.
69

[70] See Les Missions de Chine, Seizième Année (1940–1941) (Beijing: Lazaristes du Pétang, 1942);
70

Annuaire de l’Eglise catholique en China 1950. Statistique de l’année (juillet 1948–juin 1949).
Etat des Missions de Chine au 1 juillet 1949. 45e Année (Shanghai: Imprimerie de T’ou-sè-wè,
1950).
[71] Wüst, ‘Dienst der Gottgeweihten Jungfrau’, p. 215.
71

[72] See Menegon, ‘Penance, Chastity and Common Rituals’, p. 21, for further details and refer-
72

ences. Additional information on Catholic virgins in the pre-1800 period is also found in
Eugenio Menegon (2002) Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars: the localization of Christianity in late
imperial Mindong (Fujian, China), 1632–1863 (PhD, University of California); Eugenio
520 R.G. Tiedemann
Menegon (2003) Christian Loyalists, Spanish Friars, and Holy Virgins in Fujian during the
Ming-Qing Transition, Monumenta Serica, 51, pp. 335–365; Miguel Ángel San Román (2000)
Cristianos laicos en la misión dominicana del norte de la provincia de Fujian, China, en el siglo
XVII (PhD, Gregorian University, Rome). Entenmann’s seminal research has already been
mentioned in Note 10.
[73] One source that reported regularly on the work of virgins is Annales de l’Oeuvre de la Sainte-
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Enfance, published since 1846 by the Society of the Holy Childhood (Oeuvre de la Sainte-
Enfance). This society, founded in France in 1843, provided financial support for the virgins
in connection with the baptism of infants in danger of death and the maintenance of
abandoned and orphaned girls.
[74] See, for example, Jean Charbonnier, MEP (2000) Les 120 Martyrs de Chine canonisés le 1er
74

octobre 2000, Études et documents, 12 (Paris: Archives des Missions Etrangères), pp. 92–96,
113–123.
[75] Jaschok, ‘On the Lives of Women’, p. 54.
75