LONGER, JACQUES-BENJAMIN. - B. at Le Havre (Seine-Inférieure) on 31 May 1752; on 30 Sept. 1774 he entered the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris. Ordained priest on 23 Sept. 1775, he departed on 4 Dec. of the same year for the mission of Cochinchina.
He was first a missionary at Qiang-tri, and on 3 Apr. 1787 he was appointed coadjutor to the apostolic vicar of western Tonkin. But, owing to the lack of bishops, he could be consecrated only on 30 Sept. 1798 at Macao. In 1795 he held a very important synod, whose decrees were observed without alteration for more than a century. During the persecution of 1789 he was arrested and then freed by his Christians. In 1802 and again in 1804 he unsuccessfully sought to obtain religious liberty from Emperor Gia-long; he again experienced persecution under Emperor Minh-mang, without, however, neglecting the development of the apostolate and the formation of the native clergy. He composed numerous religious works in the Annamite language.
