Marie-Adolphine

Saint Marie-Adolphine Dierkx (1866–1900, born Anna Catharina or Kaatje Dierkx) was a Dutch nun who died for her faith in China during the Boxer Rebellion and was canonised in 2000. She is one of the group known as the Martyr Saints of China who were canonised by Pope John Paul II on 1 October 2000. Her birthplace has been converted into a chapel.

==Life== She was born Anna Catharina Dierkx on 8 March 1866 in Ossendrecht, North Brabant, Netherlands. She was one of six children in a poor family, and her mother died while she was young. She worked in a chicory-processing factory and in domestic service before joining the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Antwerp in 1893 and taking the name Marie-Adolphine. In 1899 she was one of seven sisters from the Franciscan order to go to China to help at an orphanage. The orphanage soon cared for 200 children, and Marie-Adolphine was placed in charge of the laundry.