This week in Christian history: Fatima vision, first Chinese Protestant baptized

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, July 09, 2023

First Chinese Protestant baptized – July 14, 1814

A painting of Robert Morrison (1782-1834), a British minister who, in 1804, became the first Protestant missionary in China. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of the first reported baptism of a Chinese convert to Protestant Christianity, having been led to the faith by British missionary Robert Morrison.

Morrison had arrived in China years earlier, in 1807. However, his mission efforts often hit roadblocks from both Chinese and Roman Catholic authorities who took issue with his work.

Eventually, he was able to begin preaching in China and baptized an individual named Choi Kou, for whom a couple of Anglican Church schools in modern Macao are named.

Although Morrison only baptized around a dozen others during his many years of mission work in China, he is credited with pioneering outreach among the Chinese.

“Morrison’s name is not so widely known today, but until the pandemic brought travel restrictions, every year thousands of Chinese Christians from all over the world come to the Macao Protestant Chapel and Old Cemetery in Santo António parish to pay their respects,” noted The Macao News in 2021.