MOYÉ, Jean-Martin, Venerable. - Apostolic missionary, founder of the Sisters of Providence in Lorraine and of the "Christian Virgins" teaching in China, b. at Cutting (today diocese of Nancy) on 27 Jan. 1730, d. at Trier on 4 May 1793. A priest on 9 March 1754, he devoted himself to the pastoral ministry for 17 years in his diocese of Metz.
On 14 Jan. 1762 he founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence, in order to ensure free instruction in the most remote villages of his diocese. Having matured the thought of going as a missionary to China, in 1769 he requested aggregation to the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Paris; on 28 March 1773 he reached Chengtu, capital of the apostolic vicariate of Szechwan. Msgr. F. Pottier, apostolic vicar, chose him as his pro-vicar and after a few months entrusted to him as a field of apostolate the vast territories of eastern Szechwan and the province of Kweichow. There M. displayed for ten years (Sept. 1773-July 1783) a truly heroic zeal, seeking new forms of apostolate, which aroused lively contrasts and polemics among the five fellow missionary priests of the vicariate; his principal adversary was Msgr. Giovanni Desiderio di St-Martin, coadjutor of Msgr. Pottier. There M. zealously promoted the Baptism of children of pagan parents in danger of death, becoming a precursor of the Work of the Holy Childhood (interesting in this regard is his Avis aux âmes charitables d'Europe of 7 Oct. 1779); he introduced special exercises of piety and ascetic practices among his Christians; he instituted the "Christian Virgins," destined for the education of female youth, an institution still flourishing in China; he fought victoriously against the usurious contracts unfortunately prevailing even among Christians; he composed various books of piety in the vulgar Chinese language, still in use today. Exhausted by harsh penances and by incessant labor, carried out in the immense territory entrusted to him, he asked to return to Europe. Having reached Paris in 1784, he obtained permission to retire to his Lorraine, where he devoted himself to the preaching of popular missions and to the development of the Institute of the Sisters of Providence. The French Revolution did not slow his zeal; indeed he was particularly generous with help and counsel to persecuted priests. To save the Institute of the Sisters he emigrated with a group of them to Trier (in 1791), where, two years later, while exerting himself during an epidemic of typhus, he was overtaken by death. The cause of beatification and canonization of M. was introduced on 14 Jan. 1891 and the heroic nature of his virtues proclaimed on 21 May 1945 (AAS, 38 [1946], pp. 287-90).
Of M.'s writings the most important are remembered: Le dogme de la Grâce (2 vols., Nancy 1774); Relation de ce qui m'est arrivé en Chine pendant dix ans, written in 1784, preserved in the archive of the Sisters of Providence at Portieux; Le directoire des Soeurs de la Providence de Portieux contenant les ouvrages écrits pour elles par M. M. edited by the priest Puy-Pény, 1858; 2nd ed., edited by J. Marchal, Paris 1874.
Bibliography5 works
A. Pietro Frutaz