John Gabriel Perboyre was born in 1802 in France to a devout Catholic family. He felt called to become a priest from a young age and joined the Congregation of the Mission. Perboyre was sent as a missionary to China where he worked diligently despite poor health. When persecution broke out in 1839, he was betrayed, imprisoned and tortured for over a year for his faith but refused to renounce Christianity. On September 11, 1840, Perboyre was executed by strangulation and became the first French saint in China. He was beatified in 1889 and canonized in 1996, with many miracles attributed to his intercession.

1. St. John Gabriel Perboyre Missionary to China, and Martyr

2. Childhood
• Following the French
Revolution, Napoleon in 1801
brought religious peace to
France. The country was still
Catholic, especially rural France.
• Pierre Perboyre and his wife
Marie on a small farm in Puech
near Cahors typified the French
peasant’s faith. God blessed
them with eight children. Three
sons became priests in the
Congregation of the Mission
(Vincentians), and two
daughters entered the
Daughters of Charity of St.
Vincent de Paul.

3. Childhood
• John Gabriel was born on
January 6, 1802.
• At 6 years of age, he was given
charge of a small flock of sheep.
According to the custom at that
time, all children worked at
home or on farms for 6 months
of the year in summer. For the
other 6 colder months, they
went to the parish church,
where the pastor taught them
catechism and usually had a
small school to teach other
subjects.
Perboyre home

4. Childhood
• Meanwhile, his piety was
noticed by the pastor and all the
people. He loved to visit the
Blessed Sacrament and pray.
They called him the little saint
and said that when he was
praying "you could walk over
him and he wouldn't notice it".
• He loved the poor and often
saved his bread from meals to
give to wandering beggars, of
whom there were many because
of the French Revolution.

5. Vocation
• John Gabriel’s older brother,
Louis, had expressed his desire
to become a priest. His parents
decided to send him to
Montauban, where his uncle,
Rev. Jacques Perboyre, C.M.,
was conducting his own
seminary. Since Louis was only
13 and quite sickly, the parents
sent John Gabriel, then 15, with
him, to look after Louis' health
for a few months and help him
in his studies. It was winter and
there was little farm work. When
it was time for John Gabriel to
come home, he refused, saying
that it was God's will that he
become a priest as well.

6. Director of Novices,
1832-1835
• John Gabriel wished to be a
Vincentian and also go to China
to preach the Gospel. However,
his superiors appointed him a
novice director in the Vincentian
Motherhouse. He still had his
missionary longings but poor
health stood in the way. His
doctor said after examining him
that the ocean voyage alone
would kill him. That night, the
doctor became agitated and
could not sleep-- the next day
he changed his mind, saying
that he saw the voyage to the
Orient as a possible cure. John
Gabriel’s superiors took this as
a sign of God’s will.

7. To China: March 1835
• Five months at sea brought
John Gabriel to Macao where he
studied Chinese. At that time,
Macao was a Portugese colony
and was considered the main
gate to China. Here the
Vincentians had 2 houses.
• In December, along with several
missionaries, he set sail from
Macao in a junk. Since the
Chinese law forbade the entry of
Christian missionaries, the
captain and crew disguised
themselves as merchants and
smuggled John Gabriel on to
the mainland of China.

8. Trip to the Interior:
1835
• Fr. John Gabriel was appointed
to the Honan mission in Hu-psi,
which meant a long trip to the
interior of China in disguise. In
February 1836, he left Macao
with a Chinese guide. They had
a 9-week boat trip along the
coast of South China to Tou-
gan, then up the river to Fokien.
Then 20 days on foot through
Kien-chang-fou in Kiang-si
Province. Next in a small boat
by river thru Nan-chang-fou, the
capital of Kiang-si. Another 18
days by small boat up the Yang-
tze River brought them to Wu-
chang, the place of St. Francis
Clet's martyrdom.

9. Arrival at His New
Home
• By June they had arrived at
Honan where they rested 20
days. The final walk brought
them to Nan-yang in August.
This was Fr. Perboyre's
assignment-- the same house in
which St. Francis Regis Clet had
been taken prisoner.
• He was finally in his new home--
his mission-- after 17 months of
traveling over some 24,000
miles by every type of ship, boat
and by foot.

10. Daunting Mission
• Fr, Perboyre himself in his letters
supplied these interesting
statistics for all of China: about
220,000 Catholics out of a
population of 300 million or less
than one tenth of 1 percent
Catholic. For them, about 80
Chinese priests and 40 foreign
missionaries.

11. Life in China
• Father Perboyre suffered a
severe attack of fever that
forced him to rest for three
months. He lived with 2 Chinese
Vincentian priests who helped
him to continue to learn
Chinese. They took turns
guiding him on short mission
trips of from 1 to 2 weeks,
introducing him to the Catholics,
showing him the safest back
roads and lanes and how to
conduct these missions. He
spent the years 1837 and 1838
reanimating the faith in Catholic
villages by preaching,
catechizing and administering
the sacraments.

12. Life in China
• According to Fr. Perboyre’s
letters, most of the people were
poor and lived in straw houses
with dirt floors, as did the
missionaries. The churches
were the same. These mission
trips were usually very difficult
and quite dangerous. There was
always the chance of being
recognized or being betrayed,
depending on the good or bad
will of the local officials.
• Usually there were 1,000
Catholics for Mass, inside and
outside the church, even in rain
and snow.

13. Model of Vincentian
Virtues
• Fr. Perboyre wrote of many
miracles among the devout
Catholics, especially in
connection with the use of the
Miraculous Medal of Mary,
which had just been manifested
25 or so years earlier in 1830 to
St. Catherine Laboure.
• Fr. Perboyre wore an iron chain
around his waist for
mortification. To prepare his
people for persecution, which
might break out at any time, he
constantly preached on
suffering and persecution and
the glory of martyrdom.

14. Persecution Breaks
Out
• In 1839, a persecution broke out
in Hu-pei. A young Christian of
Nan-kiang had informed on the
Christians and missionaries. The
officials sent troops to round
them up. On Sept 15, 1839, four
Vincentian priests had just
finished Mass, when they were
informed that the persecution
had broken out. Fr. Perboyre
made sure that everyone else
was safe, before he too
escaped to a nearby bamboo
forest. The soldiers were angry
on seeing that all had gone and
completely plundered the
mission and burned it down.

15. Betrayed and
Captured
• At night he would leave the
forest and go to a Christian's
home where he had a little food,
had his beard cut off and slept.
But here he was betrayed when
soldiers threatened a man who
then led them to the exact spot
where Fr. Perboyre and 3
Christians were hiding.
• When they saw they were
surrounded, his companions
wanted to fight their way out
with knives, but Fr. Perboyre
refused to let them use any
violence.

16. As a Prisoner: Sept.
1839 - Sept. 1840
• They took Fr. Perboyre to the
top of the mountain, stripped off
his clothes and put rags on him;
they beat him and marched him
to the market place at Koang-
yin-tang.
• Frequently tortured in prison, Fr.
Perboyre refused to betray his
faith and his associates. The
guards would tread on the cross
and beat him with bamboo rods.
He was questioned, hung by
the thumbs and made to kneel
on chains for 4 hours at a time.
He lost a finger and part of one
foot from putrefaction.

17. As a Prisoner: Sept.
1839 - Sept. 1840
• There were other tortures too
numerous and cruel to mention
but Fr. Perboyre never once
cried out. Usually, he had to
carried back and forth to these
trials because he could no
longer walk a step.
• One time, when they asked him
to step on the crucifix, though
he could barely move, he leaned
over, picked up the crucifix,
kissed it and embraced it. The
soldiers in anger tore it from
him, smashed it, and gave him
110 blows with a bamboo rod.

18. Condemned to Death
• In April, 1840 Fr. Perboyre was
condemned to death by
strangulation for teaching a
false religion. This sentence had
to be approved by the emperor.
By this point Fr. Perboyre was
unable to speak or walk, stand
up or even sit up.
• After his condemnation, Fr.
Yang, C.M. was able to visit
him. When he first saw Fr.
Perboyre's condition, he
couldn't say a word but just
stood there weeping at the
horrible sight. Finally he was
able to hear his confession.

19. Death of St. John
Gabriel Perboyre
• John Gabriel Perboyre was
executed on September 11,
1840, in the Chinese custom of
being tied to a stake and triple
strangled. Andrew Fong, a
generous and valiant catechist
who had aided Father Perboyre
in his imprisonment, retrieved
his body and buried it in the
Christian cemetery where St.
Francis Regis Clet, C.M., was
buried. Both their remains now
repose in the chapel of the
Vincentian Motherhouse in
Paris, France.

20. Canonization
• The heroic suffering and death
of John Gabriel led to his
beatification in 1889. And in
recent times, Pope John Paul II
canonized him as Saint John
Gabriel Perboyre, C.M., on June
2nd 1996.

21. Miracles
• After a year of the most
barbarous tortures, Fr.
Perboyre's body on the cross
looked beautiful, fresh and
young with no marks or scars.
Many pagans were converted
by this fact alone.
• At his death, a large, distinct,
bright, luminous cross appeared
in heaven. This was seen by
many people, near and far,
pagans and Christians, living in
different communities. That
same luminous cross appeared
again months later over his
tomb.

22. Miracles
• In France, there was in 1847 a
girl in the Daughters of Charity
hospital, dying of typhoid fever.
She was annointed, and the
doctors gave her up as a
hopeless case. This was in the
neighborhood of Fr. Perboyre's
birth and childhood, so there
was great devotion to him. The
family and Daughters of Charity
started a novena to Fr. Perboyre
and she was suddenly
completely cured.

23. Miracles
• In 1841 in another part of
France, there was a Daughter of
Charity who over several
months was dying of pleuro-
pneumonia; the doctors too
gave her case up. She could do
nothing-- eat, talk or move. The
Sisters began a novena to the
new martyr and the Sister was
immediately cured, sat up and
ate the equivalent of several
meals.
• These are only a few of the
hundreds of miracles reported
from all over the world.

24. The Prayer of St. John
Gabriel Perboyre
O my Divine Savior, transform me into
Yourself. May my hands be the hands of
Jesus. May my tongue be the tongue 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
affections 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."

25. Sources:
http://jgperboyre.blogspot.com
John Gabriel Perboyre, the Vincentian Center for
Church and Society at St. John’s University
(http://vincenter.org/node/125)
For further reading, try:
John Gabriel Perboyre by Thomas Davitt, CM
(http://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1041&context=vhj)