Empress Dowager Ma (Southern Ming)

Empress Dowager Ma (1578–1669), personal name unknown, formally known as Empress Dowager Zhaosheng (Chinese: 昭聖太后), was an empress dowager of the Chinese Southern Ming dynasty.

[1] She was a Sichuanese native and the birth mother of the Yongli Emperor.

She converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted the name Maria.

Letter from the Empress Dowager Wang (the "honorary mother" of the Yongli Emperor ) to the Pope with a request for help. November 1650. Latin translation by Michał Boym .