Augustin Schoeffler
| Saint Augustin Schoeffler | |
|---|---|
|
Saint Augustin Schoeffler. | |
| Martyr | |
| Born |
22 November 1822 Mittelbronn, France |
| Died |
1 May 1851 (aged 28) Son Tay, Vietnam |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 7 May 1900 by Pope Leo XIII |
| Canonized | 19 June 1988, Rome, Italy by John-Paul II |
| Major shrine | Mittelbronn, France |
| Feast | May 1 (May 2 locally in France) |
| Patronage | Metz Seminary |
Augustin Schoeffler (1822–1851) was a French saint and martyr in the Roman Catholic Church and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. He was a priest in Lorraine who joined the Foreign Missions of Paris.[1] He worked as a missionary to Indochina and was one of two French missionaries killed in northern Vietnam between 1847 and 1851.[2] At the time, it was illegal to proselytize in Vietnam.
His feast day is May 1 (May 2 locally in France).[1]
Early life and education
Augustin Schoeffler was born on the 22 of November, 1822, in Mittlebronn, France.[3] He was baptized the next day. From 1834-1842 he studied at the minor seminary of Pont-à-Mousson and the college of Phalsbourg. From 1842-1846 Schoeffler studied Philosophy at the major seminary of Nancy. On the 5 October 1846, he began training in the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Paris. On May 29, 1847 Augustin Schoeffler was ordained a priest in Paris.[4]
Missionary Life
- November 18, 1847: left Antwerp for Tonkin.
- July 6, 1848: arrived in Tonkin.
- 1848-1851: Worked as missionary while learning the Vietnamese language.
- Spring 1850: Left for the north of the country where his bishop gave him the task of evangelizing to Son Tay.
- March 1, 1851: Schoeffler was arrested.
- March 5, 1851: Schoeffler was found guilty of proselytizing.
- May 1, 1851: Schoeffler was beheaded at Son Tay.[4]
As Father Schoeffler walked to his place of execution, a placard, which read, "He preached truly the whole charge of preaching the religion of Jesus. His crime is patent. Let Mr. Augustin be beheaded, and cast into a stream."[5] was carried before him. Augustin Schoeffler's head was thrown into the Red River, and was never recovered.[3] The crowd rushed to collect relics. Some even uprooted the grass that was stained with his blood.[6] His body was buried on the site of his execution. Two days later, local Christians exhumed the body and reburied it in a Christian village nearby.[3]
Sainthood
On September 24, 1857, Augustin Schoeffler was declared Venerable by Pope Pius IX. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on May 7, 1900. He was made a saint by Pope John Paul II on June 19, 1988.
Relics
As of May 10, 2009 a relic of Augustin Schoeffler can be found at the Assumption Grotto Church in Detroit, Michigan.[7] Descendants of Schoeffler's family live in the area and attend the church.[8]
References
- 1 2 Englebert, Omer (1994). The Lives of Saints. Christopher Fremantle, Anne Fremantle (trans.). New York: Barnes and Noble Books. ISBN 978-1-56619-516-4.
- ↑ McLeod, Mark W. (1991). The Vietnamese response to French intervention, 1862-1874. New York: Praeger. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-275-93562-7.
- 1 2 3 Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (French)
- 1 2 Noblet, Joseph; Jean-Paul Berlocher (1988). An Adventurer For God. p. 46. OCLC 25134446.
- ↑ Marshall, Thomas William M (1862). Christian Missions; Their Agents, Their Method, and Their Results. London Burns and Lambert. OCLC 162573014.
- ↑ Nola Cooke (June 2004). "Early Nineteenth-Century Vietnamese Catholics and Others in the Pages of the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 35 (2): 261–285. doi:10.1017/s0022463404000141.
- ↑ Assumption Grotto News
- ↑ Te Deum laudamus!
External links
- (French) Archives of the Paris Foreign Missions Society
- http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/51590
- https://web.archive.org/web/20130308174335/http://www.op-stjoseph.org:80/dom-images/pdf-files/witnesses.pdf