Jean-Gabriel Perboyre

John Gabriel Perboyre, CM (; 1802–1840) was a French Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians or Lazarists) who served as a missionary in China, where he suffered martyrdom. He was canonized in 1996 by Pope John Paul II.

Life

Early life Perboyre was born in 1802 at Le Puech (now in the commune of Montgesty), Lot, France, one of eight children born to Pierre Perboyre and Marie Rigal, who ran a farm. (Five of them would enter either the Vincentian Fathers or the Daughters of Charity.) He led a routine childhood and youth, displaying no particular religious fervor. This changed in 1816, however, after his younger brother, Louis, was accepted into the Vincentian seminary recently founded in Montauban by their uncle, Jacques Perboyre, C.M. John Gabriel was asked by their parents to accompany his brother until he had adapted to his new environment. To his surprise, John Gabriel felt drawn to follow this life himself.

When the teachers at the minor seminary saw John Gabriel's intelligence and piety, they suggested that he enroll formally in the seminary. He wrote to his father, offering to return to help on the farm should his father wish, but indicating that he felt that he was called to serve as a priest. His parents gave him their blessing and full support in this. ), where there was a Vincentian mission center, sent soldiers to arrest the missionaries. Perboyre was meeting informally with some other priests of the region when the soldiers arrived to seize them. The priests scattered and hid, but one catechist, under torture, gave away where Perboyre was hiding. When seized, the priest was stripped of his garments and clothed with rags, bound, and, over the course of time, was dragged from tribunal to tribunal. At each trial, he was treated inhumanly. Finally, he was taken to Wuchang, and after torture, was condemned to death.

The sentence was confirmed by an imperial edict in 1840, and on 11 September of that year, Perboyre was led to death with seven common criminals. He was strangled to death on a cross at Wuchang. His body was retrieved and buried in the mission cemetery by a catechist.

Veneration

The cause for John Gabriel Perboyre's beatification was admitted by the Holy See once the statutory waiting period of five years after death had passed. He was eventually beatified by Pope Leo XIII in Rome on 10 November 1889, and the cause for his canonization was formally opened on 11 March 1891. The canonization by Pope John Paul II took place on 2 June 1996. In the meantime, his remains were returned from China to France, where they were entombed for veneration in the chapel of the Vincentian Motherhouse in Paris, Saint Vincent de Paul Chapel. This transformational prayer builds towards Saint Paul's statement in Galatians 2:20: "I live – now not I – But Christ lives in me".

O my Divine Savior, Transform me into Yourself. May my hands be the hands of Jesus. Grant that every faculty of my body May serve only to glorify You.

Above all, Transform my soul and all its powers So that my memory, will and affection May be the memory, will and affections Of Jesus.

I pray You To destroy in me All that is not of You. Grant that I may live But in You, by You and for You, So that I may truly say, With St. Paul, "I live – now not I – But Christ lives in me".