Perboyre, Jean-Gabriel, Blessed

PERBOYRE, Jean-Gabriel, Blessed. - Born at Puech (Montgesty, France) on 6 January 1802, died at Wuchang (China) on 11 September 1840. From the Seminary of Montauban (1817) he passed the following year into the novitiate of the Congregation of the Mission in Paris, where he took his religious vows on 28 December 1820.

Ordained a priest on 23 September 1825, he taught theology until 1827 at the major Seminary of St-Flour; from 1827 to 1832 he was superior of the ecclesiastical boarding school of the same city, and from 1832 to 1835 vice-director of the novitiate of his community in Paris. On 21 March 1835 he obtained permission to leave for China, assigned first to the mission of Honan and then to that of Eupé. When the persecution broke out, on 16 September 1839 he was captured at Tcha-Yuen-Keu and thrown into the prison of Wuchang, where he underwent many interrogations before the mandarins and the viceroy, who condemned him to death. At Wuchang, Father remained eight months in prison, 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 bones of the blessed R. Clet, his confrere, until 1858. Beatified on 10 November 1889. Feast on 7 November.

Luigi Franci