Siege of Beitang

On 15 June, at 17:00, the first Boxers showed up and simply asked to enter, threatening and insulting the besieged. Two hours later, they took their anger out on the nearby mission of Shalal which had received no military protection and was set on fire shortly after. The following day, the Boxers attempted another siege and with the door unknowingly left open, around 300 Boxers armed with sabres, cutlasses, halberds and windtorches attempted to make their way in but were met by rifle fire by the French soldiers upon reaching 50 meters in their range and following the death of around 40 men, the Boxers temporarily retreated. The next few days saw continuous sieging by the Boxer rebels but were always met with heavy losses with only a few wounds on the French and Italian soldiers. 24 June made matters worse as following the capture of nearby walls overlooking the cathedral and with assistance by the Krupp cannons of the Imperial Chinese Army, the Boxers began besieging the Cathedral which put the European defense in crisis. Olivieri and his men proceeded to run on the embarkment that faced the wall in order to take down the Chinese forces and after around 30 minutes of fighting, the Chinese were forced to retreat as the Italian and French forces celebrated this victory as they held their ground after around 700 Boxers approached them from a different direction. The siege became particularly harsh when food rationing became extreme as inside the church as despite initially high rations, the defenders suffered from hunger and the little humanitarian aid was served by the nuns as well as ammunition beginning to run low. On 11 July, stones and bricks were thrown from the upper walls, injuring several and killing a refugee. A mine was also detonated around the same day but due to it being poorly armed, it did minimal damage.^[3] On 30 July, the command of the French marines was entrusted to Olivieri following the death of two marines including Henry himself.

On a rainy 4 August, the first sights of the international relief forces were seen with morale running high upon the sounds of cannon fire in the southeast. However, complications would delay the relief force as the Boxer rebels had grown to a force of 10,000 men and the siege of the Cathedral only increased in its intensity. On 10 August, a Chinese mine exploded under the cathedral and killed 4 Italian sailors on the spot and four others were buried alive by the rubble. Among those stuck in the rubble was Olivieri who managed to be freed alive together with the gunner Rosselli with the other two remaining under the rubble as search was suspended due a hail of Chinese bullets preventing further investigation.^[5] On the morning of 16 August, the siege was broken by Japanese soldiers. At the end of the siege, 5 French sailors, 6 Italians and about three hundred Chinese Christian refugees were killed.^[3]

According to W. A. P. Martin, "the defense of that cathedral constitutes the most brilliant page in the history of the siege". Favier was praised in his successful defense of the cathedral as the probabilities of the Church holding out was described by Martin as being "nothing short of a miracle."^[6] According to Martin, "The new church, or of the north, which was located in open ground, was considered capable of defending itself, and Monsignor Favier courageously decided to keep it at all costs, thus preserving the lives of three thousand converts who had taken refuge there."^[7]