[1] Sheng Bai Xiaoman was born in Guizhou to a poor family,[2] and became an orphan at a young age.
A the time, a bitter civil war was being fought in China between the Taiping rebels and the Qing government.
Augustus Chapdelaine was known in Guangxi for carrying out missionary activities in a way that offended traditional Chinese customs and culture, especially concerning ancestor worship.
In 1856, Chapdelaine was arrested by Qing authorities and they decided to execute him rather than to deport him to one of the Chinese treaty ports where European missionaries were legally permitted to stay.
Fifteen others were also arrested in association with this episode, including another saint named Agnes Tsao Kou Ying who was also put to death.