AIMÉ VILLION. — Born at Genay (Ain, France) on 2 Sept. 1843; died on 1 Apr. 1932.
Having entered the Seminary of the Foreign Missions of Paris on 30 Sept. 1863 and been ordained priest on 26 May 1868, he left for Hong Kong on 14 June, whence in 1870 he was sent to Japan at Kobé. There he made contact with the exiled Christians and secretly administered many baptisms. In 1878 he moved to Kyoto as a language teacher and also studied Buddhism at the famous Chion temple. He later founded stations at Yamaguchi, Hagi, Tsu-wano, and Jifuku, now within the vicariate of Hiroshima. In 1926 he took charge of the Christian community at Nara, the ancient capital of Japan (710–84) and a major Buddhist pilgrimage centre, where he built a church in Japanese style. He died at Osaka. He had never revisited France, as he had vowed to do in order to obtain his father’s conversion; his father returned to the faith before dying. The civil authorities of Osaka erected a monument to him at Yamaguchi and included his biography in the primary-school history textbook. V. translated into three volumes the *Lettres de S. François Xavier* and wrote his memoirs: *50 Ans d'apostolat au Japon* (Nazareth, Hong Kong 1923).