St. Jean-Gabriel Perboyre
(1802-1840)
A
sermon he heard at age 15 inspired today’s saint to become a missionary
in China. There he met a brutal death on a cross for refusing to
renounce his faith.
Born in France in 1802, Jean-Gabriel became a Vincentian priest. He
displayed so many gifts and had such fine personal and spiritual
qualities that, for a time, his religious order kept him busy closer to
home.
He finally received permission to begin his missionary endeavors
in 1835. After a 1,000-mile trip by boat and foot across three
provinces, he arrived in central China. In one early letter written to
his community in Paris he described himself as a curious sight: “my head
shaved, a long pig-tail, stammering my new languages, eating with
chopsticks.”
He soon joined the Vincentians in helping to rescue abandoned
Chinese children and in educating them in the Catholic faith. He was
arrested in 1839 under an edict that banned Christianity. He was
tortured and interrogated for months. Almost one year later he was
executed by strangling while hanging on a cross.
St. Jean-Gabriel was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1996.
Chinese government officials denied permission for any public Mass
commemorating the new saint.
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