Auguste Chapdelaine
Encyclopedia
Father Auguste Chapdelaine (Chinese name: Ma Lai 馬賴) (February 6, 1814 - February 29, 1856) was a French
Christian
missionary
of the Paris Foreign Missions Society
.
, France. He left France in 1852 to join the Catholic mission in the Guangxi
province of China
.
After a stay in Guangzhou
, he moved to Guiyang
, capital of the Guizhou
province, in the spring of 1854. In December, he went, together with Lu Tingmei, to Yaoshan
village, Xilin county of Guangxi, where he met the local Catholic community of around 300 people. He celebrated his first mass
there on December 8, 1854. He was arrested and thrown into the Xilin county prison ten days after his arrival, and was released after sixteen or eighteen days of captivity.
Following personal threats, he went back to Guizhou in early 1855, and came back to Guangxi in December of the same year. He was denounced on February 22, 1856, by Bai San, a relative of a new convert, while the local tribunal was on holiday. He was arrested in Yaoshan, together with other Chinese Catholics, by orders of Zhang Mingfeng, the new local mandarin
on February 25, 1856. He was severely beaten and locked into a small iron cage, which was hung at the gate of the jail. He was already dead when he was beheaded.
His murder was reported by the head of the French missions in Hong Kong on July 12th. The chargé d'affaires, de Courcy, in Macao learned of the murder on July 17th and filed a vigorous protest on July 25th to the Chinese Imperial Viceroy Ye Mingchen
.
On July 30th he sent a report to the French foreign office of the murder:
The viceroy responded to de Courcy by pointing out that Father Chapdelaine had already violated Chinese law by preaching Christianity in the interior (the 1844 treaty signed with France only permitted for the propagation of Christianity in the 5 treaty ports opened to the French), he also claimed that the priest was in a rebel territory and that many of his converts had already been arrested for acts of treason, and the viceroy further claimed that Father Chapdelaine's mission had nothing in common with the propagation of religion .
Under French diplomatic pressure, the mandarin who ordered his death was later demoted. When Britain
went to war with China in the same year (commencing the Second Opium War
(1856–1860)), France initially declared its neutrality but de Courcy made it known that French sympathy was with the English due to the Chapdelaine incident.
In 1857, de Bourboulon, the French plenipotentiary arrived in Hong Kong and attempted to negotiate reparations for the murder of Father Chapdelaine and to revise the treaty. He failed to reach an agreement with Yeh .
Talks continued into December of that year. Viceroy Yeh on the 14th of December stated that he had received a report that the person who was killed was a member of the Triad society with a similar Chinese name to Father Chapdelaine was executed as a rebel in March, and that this was not the same person as Father Chapdelaine. He also complained that in the past many French citizens had gone into the interior to preach, and he cited the case of six missionaries who had been arrested and were handed over to French custody .
The French embassy found Yeh's reply to be evasive, derisory and a formal refusal of French demands. French military action began soon afterwards.
Lord Elgin
, the British High Commissioner for China commented on the French ultimatum given prior to France's entry to the war:
The Chinese version of article 6 in the Sino-French Peking Convention, signed at the end of the war, gave Christians the right to spread their faith in China and to French missionaries to hold property.
in 1900. He was canonized
on October 1, 2000, by Pope John Paul II
, together with 120 Christian martyr
s who had died in China between the 17th and 20th century.
On October 3, 2000, Xinhua News Agency
reacted to the canonisation by issuing a press release, painting a very negative portrait of Father Chapdelaine.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
of the Paris Foreign Missions Society
Paris Foreign Missions Society
The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious order, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons dedicated to missionary work in foreign lands....
.
Biography
He was born in La Rochelle-NormandeLa Rochelle-Normande
La Rochelle-Normande is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France....
, France. He left France in 1852 to join the Catholic mission in the Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
province of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
After a stay in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, he moved to Guiyang
Guiyang
Guiyang is the capital of Guizhou province of Southwest China. It is located in the centre of the province, situated on the east of the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, and on the north bank of the Nanming River, a branch of the Wu River. The city has an elevation of about 1,100 meters...
, capital of the Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
province, in the spring of 1854. In December, he went, together with Lu Tingmei, to Yaoshan
Yaoshan
Yaoshan is a township-level division situated in Baoding, Hebei, China....
village, Xilin county of Guangxi, where he met the local Catholic community of around 300 people. He celebrated his first mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
there on December 8, 1854. He was arrested and thrown into the Xilin county prison ten days after his arrival, and was released after sixteen or eighteen days of captivity.
Following personal threats, he went back to Guizhou in early 1855, and came back to Guangxi in December of the same year. He was denounced on February 22, 1856, by Bai San, a relative of a new convert, while the local tribunal was on holiday. He was arrested in Yaoshan, together with other Chinese Catholics, by orders of Zhang Mingfeng, the new local mandarin
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
on February 25, 1856. He was severely beaten and locked into a small iron cage, which was hung at the gate of the jail. He was already dead when he was beheaded.
Diplomacy
Ye Mingchen
Ye Mingchen was a high-ranking Chinese official during the Qing Dynasty, known for his resistance to British influence in Guangzhou in the aftermath of the First Opium War.-Early career:...
.
La captivite de M. Chapdelaine, les tortures qu'il a subies, sa mort cruelle, les violences qu'on a faites a son cadavre, constituent, noble Commissaire Imperial, une flagrante et odieuse violation des engagements solennels qu'il a consacres. "Votre Gouvernement doit donc une eclatante reparation a la France . vous n'hesiterez pas a me l'accorder pleine et entiere. C'est a V. E. qu'il appartient naturalle- ment d'en proposer les termes; j'aurai a decider ensuite si l'honneur, la dignite et les interets du Gouvernement de mon grand Empereur me permettent de les accepter. " Mon desir serait d'ailleurs de me rendre a Canton et d'en conferer de vive voix avec V. E. Elle n'ignore pas qu'une heure de conversations amicales avance plus quelquefois la solution des affaires importantes qu'un mois des correspondances ecrites
On July 30th he sent a report to the French foreign office of the murder:
si, en un mot, le Representant de S. M. Imperiale ne manquerait pas a ses devoirs en ne profitant pas de l'occasion qui lui est offerte, pour reparer d'un seul coup, les erreurs ou les fautes du passe, et pour faire sortir du martyre d'un missionnaire le complet affranchissement du Christianisme
The viceroy responded to de Courcy by pointing out that Father Chapdelaine had already violated Chinese law by preaching Christianity in the interior (the 1844 treaty signed with France only permitted for the propagation of Christianity in the 5 treaty ports opened to the French), he also claimed that the priest was in a rebel territory and that many of his converts had already been arrested for acts of treason, and the viceroy further claimed that Father Chapdelaine's mission had nothing in common with the propagation of religion .
Under French diplomatic pressure, the mandarin who ordered his death was later demoted. When Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
went to war with China in the same year (commencing the Second Opium War
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...
(1856–1860)), France initially declared its neutrality but de Courcy made it known that French sympathy was with the English due to the Chapdelaine incident.
In 1857, de Bourboulon, the French plenipotentiary arrived in Hong Kong and attempted to negotiate reparations for the murder of Father Chapdelaine and to revise the treaty. He failed to reach an agreement with Yeh .
Talks continued into December of that year. Viceroy Yeh on the 14th of December stated that he had received a report that the person who was killed was a member of the Triad society with a similar Chinese name to Father Chapdelaine was executed as a rebel in March, and that this was not the same person as Father Chapdelaine. He also complained that in the past many French citizens had gone into the interior to preach, and he cited the case of six missionaries who had been arrested and were handed over to French custody .
The French embassy found Yeh's reply to be evasive, derisory and a formal refusal of French demands. French military action began soon afterwards.
The Opium War
The French empire had many times suffered the death of missionaries for which no military vengeance occurred. The political situation wherein Britain's victory was seen as inevitable and the French desire to make its own imperial gains in China, alongside the fact that the French did not have a policy elsewhere of punitive military expeditions to avenge the death of missionaries, has led many historians to conclude that the death of Father Chapdelaine was merely an excuse used in order to declare war so that France could build its empireLord Elgin
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin
Sir James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, KT, GCB, PC , was a British colonial administrator and diplomat...
, the British High Commissioner for China commented on the French ultimatum given prior to France's entry to the war:
GrosJean-Baptiste Louis GrosJean-Baptiste Louis Gros was a French ambassador and one of the first daguerrotypists. Baron and French chargé d'affaires in Bogotá , Athens and Ambassador to London - during which period he also travelled to China and Japan in 1857 and 1858 — he produced many famous daguerrotypes — chief among...
[the French ambassador] showed me a projet de note when I called on him some days ago. It is very long and very well written. The fact is, that he has had a much better case of quarrel than we; at least one that lends itself much better to rhetoric.
The Chinese version of article 6 in the Sino-French Peking Convention, signed at the end of the war, gave Christians the right to spread their faith in China and to French missionaries to hold property.
Recognition and controversy
August Chapdelaine was beatifiedBeatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
in 1900. He was canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
on October 1, 2000, by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, together with 120 Christian martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s who had died in China between the 17th and 20th century.
On October 3, 2000, Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency
The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
reacted to the canonisation by issuing a press release, painting a very negative portrait of Father Chapdelaine.
External links
- Article about the Christian martyr saints of China, with biographies (in French)
- A biography of Father Chapdelaine (in French)
- "Vatican's Canonization,a Severe Provocation to Chinese People" A critical commentary from the Chinese embassy in Australia.