BERTHIEU, JACQUES. — Missionary martyred for the faith in Madagascar. Born at Polminhac (Auvergne) on 26 November 1838 and ordained a priest in 1864, he was curate at Roannes; having become a Jesuit in 1873, he was sent to Madagascar in 1875. He was first superior of the mission on the island of St. Mary, then, forced by sectarianism to leave it in 1881, devoted his zeal at Ambohimandroso, among the Betsileo, thereafter, following France’s war in Madagascar in 1883, at Ambositra, and finally, in 1891, at Andrainarivo, in northern Imerina. He fell victim to the indigenous revolt and
the war of 1895–96. Abandoned, owing to the French military column commander’s base anticlericalism, while he was accompanying his Christian refugees, he was captured by the insurgents and put to death at Ambiatibé on 8 June 1896. His cause of beatification was introduced in Rome in 1940.