The death squad, Communist soldiers at the ready, loaded their rifles with fresh rounds of ammo. Shots rang out. The monks collapsed upon the blood-splashed, frozen ground. Their lifeless bodies dragged to a nearby sewage ditch and dumped into a heap, one on top of the other.
Alerted by the shots, wild dogs, roaming the village's dirt roads, scavenging for scraps, hurried over to the bodies to investigate. Sniffing, they lapped up the warm blood, steaming in the icy air.
It was all over. Our Lady of Consolation was no more.
By that spring of 1948, 33 of the abbey's monks had been martyred during the Death March. Then the Chinese Communists went after Our Lady of Joy. By 1951, two more had died for the faith. This is the story of the Trappist monks of Communist China, as told from the grave.
