Saint Mark Ji Tianxiang Medal Necklace – Patron Saint of Drug Addicts & Recovery

Saint Mark Ji Tianxiang, Patron Saint of Drug Addicts and Recovery

Mark Ji Tianxiang was a physician in Hengshui, China, who began using opium to treat a chronic stomach ailment and became addicted, a condition that carried severe stigma in the Catholic community he belonged to. For thirty years his confessor refused him absolution, believing his repeated relapses meant he lacked true contrition, and barred him from receiving the Eucharist. He kept attending Mass every week regardless, and continued treating patients for free the entire time. He was finally reconciled to the Church shortly before his death. On July 9, 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, he was captured with 119 other Christians and ordered to renounce his faith. He asked to be executed last so he could stay beside the others and encourage them through their deaths, then was beheaded himself. He was canonized in 2000 as one of the Martyrs of China, and the Church names him patron saint of drug addicts.

A Gift For...

• Someone in addiction recovery or working a sobriety program
• A person rebuilding their relationship with faith after feeling unwelcome in it
• A doctor, nurse, or caregiver who treats patients for free or at low cost
• Someone who was turned away or judged and stayed anyway
• A person marking a sobriety anniversary or recovery milestone
• Anyone who needs proof that persistence outlasts stigma

A Confirmation Gift for Mark

Considering Mark for a confirmation name? "Not Alone" or "Kept Coming Back" both fit within the 20-character line limit. He suits confirmation well because his life shows faith holding steady even without the reward of feeling worthy, a real model for a confirmand learning that showing up matters more than feeling ready.

The Saint Mark Ji Tianxiang Medal

The design shows Mark Ji Tianxiang in traditional dress, haloed, holding a martyr's palm and a cross. The natural gold or silver of the metal forms the illustration itself. Black ink is applied to the pendant surface and the metal shows through as the image. A shatterproof liquid glass coating seals the surface. The result has a depth and precision that printed medals don't achieve.

Personalization and Engraving

Reverse engraving available in Tangerine cursive, 2 lines, 20 characters max each. Well-suited pairings: a name with "Not Alone," or a sobriety date paired with "Kept Coming Back."

Saint Mark Ji Tianxiang's feast day is July 9th. He asked to be executed last, so that no one he loved would face the end without him standing beside them.

Related Devotions for Recovery and the Ones Who Stay

• Saint John of God Medal. Before founding the hospital order that defined his life, John of God endured his own breakdown and confinement, and is honored today as a patron of alcoholics and those in recovery, the closest parallel in this catalog to what Mark Ji Tianxiang lived through firsthand.
• Saint Matthias Medal. Matthias is traditionally invoked by those working toward sobriety, rooted in an early teaching of his about mastering the body through faith rather than willpower alone.
• Saint Monica Medal. Monica is honored as a patron of alcoholics from the other side of the struggle, having spent decades praying for a son's recovery rather than working through an addiction of her own.
• Saint Maximilian Kolbe Medal. Kolbe also chose to face death for someone else's sake, volunteering to die in a stranger's place at Auschwitz, the same instinct that led Mark Ji Tianxiang to ask to be executed last so he could stand by the others first.