VILLION, AIMÉ. - Born at Genay (Ain, France) on 2 September 1843 and died on 1 April 1932.
Having entered the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris on 30 September 1863 and been ordained a priest on 26 May 1868, he set out on 14 June for Hong Kong, whence in 1870 he was sent to Japan, to Kobe, where he made contact with the exiled Christians and secretly administered many Baptisms. In 1878 he moved to Kyoto as a teacher of language and also devoted himself to the study of Buddhism in the famous temple of Chion. He then founded the stations of Yamaguchi, Hagi, Tsuwano and Jifuku, now in the vicariate of Hiroshima. In 1926 he took charge of the Christian community of Nara, the ancient capital of Japan (719-84) and a great center of Buddhist pilgrimage, and there he built a church in Japanese style. He died at Osaka. He had never seen France again, as he had vowed to do in order to obtain the conversion of his father, who returned to the faith before dying. The civil authorities of Osaka erected a monument to him at Yamaguchi and introduced his biography into the history textbook of the primary schools. V. translated into three volumes the Lettres de fr. François Xavier and wrote his memoirs: 50 Ans d'apostolat au Japon (Nazareth, Hong Kong 1923).
Bibliography
Antonio Anoge