JACQUES-BENJAMIN LONGER. — Born at Le Havre (Seine-Inférieure) on 31 May 1752; on 30 September 1774 he entered the Seminary of the Foreign Missions in Paris. Ordained priest on 23 September 1775, he left on 4 December of the same year for the mission in Cochinchina.
He was first a missionary at Qui Nhon and on 3 April 1787 was appointed coadjutor to the Apostolic Vicar of Western Tonkin. However, owing to the lack of bishops, he could be consecrated only on 30 September 1798 at Macao. In 1795 he held a very important synod, whose decrees were observed for more than a century without modification. During the persecution of 1789 he was arrested and then freed by his Christian flock. In 1802 and again in 1804 he vainly sought from Emperor Gia-Long freedom of religion; he experienced renewed persecution under Emperor Minh-Mạng, yet he did not cease to develop the apostolate and to train the native clergy. He composed numerous religious works in the Annamite language.
When he died on 8 February 1831, after forty years of episcopate, his mission counted 174,000 baptised, 87 native priests and 180 seminarians. ANTONIO ANONGE