JEAN-GABRIEL PERBOVRE, Blessed. — Born at Puech (Montgesty, France) on 6 January 1802, died at Wuchang (China) on 11 September 1840. After attending the Seminary of Montauban (1817), he entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Mission in Paris the following year, where he took his religious vows on 28 December 1820.
Ordained priest on 23 September 1825, he taught theology at the major seminary of St-Flour from 1825 to 1827; from 1827 to 1832 he was superior of the ecclesiastical boarding school in the same city, and from 1832 to 1835 he served as vice-director of the novitiate of his community in Paris. On 21 March 1835 he obtained permission to depart for China, initially assigned to the mission of Honan and later to that of Hupeh. With the outbreak of persecution, on 16 September 1839 he was captured at Tcha-Yuen-Keu and thrown into the prison of Wuchang, where he endured numerous interrogations before the mandarins and the viceroy, who condemned him to death. In Wuchang, Fr. Perbovre remained in prison for eight months, until on 11 September 1840, when the Emperor’s confirmation of his sentence arrived, he was strangled. He was buried at the “Red Mountain,” the cemetery of Wuchang, where he rested beside the remains of Bl. R. Clet, his confrere, until 1858. Beatified on 10 November 1889. Feast day: 7 November.