Francis Xavier Ford

American missionary

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Born:: Jan. 11, 1892, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.

Died:: Feb. 21, 1952, Guangzhou [Canton], China

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Francis Xavier Ford (born Jan. 11, 1892, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Feb. 21, 1952, Guangzhou [Canton], China) was a martyred American Roman Catholic missionary and bishop of Meixian in Guangdong province, China.

Ford was ordained in 1917 and went to China the next year in the first group of Maryknoll missionaries sent to that country. He founded the Maryknoll Seminary for Chinese Boys in Yangjiang in 1921 and in 1922 established the first overseas convent for Maryknoll sisters. He became the first bishop of Meixian (1935) and remained at his post during World War II, though surrounded by Japanese troops. Under the postwar communist government, he was arrested on espionage charges on Dec. 23, 1950. He was humiliated and forced to submit to public beatings en route to prison in Guangzhou. His subsequent death in Guangzhou was not known outside China until September 1952.

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