1870 - Claude Chévrier

June 21, 1870

Tianjin

Claude Chévrier.

Claude Chévrier was born on August 13, 1821, in the French town of St. Jodard (now St. Etienne). His parents were hardworking farmers living off the produce of their land. God blessed their union and gave them seven children, whom they raised in the fear of the Lord and encouraged them to follow Christ regardless of the cost.

When he was eight-years-old, Claude was sent to a school run by Catholic priests. One day he was tempted by some schoolmates to skip school. His parents learned about it and punishment was swift. His younger brother, Jean-Louis, remembered the incident more than five decades later: “After more than fifty years that scene is before me. My father whipped him whilst my mother held him, and I cried bitterly, for I loved my brother so much. But he never had the smallest inclination to do it again.”[1] Until the age of eighteen, Claude lived with his grandmother who was also a strict disciplinarian. Although there was not much fun in that household, Chévrier grew up respecting God and his fellow man.

In 1842 the young Frenchman was conscripted and spent two years in the military. At the end of his time Chévrier decided to remain in the navy and was sent to French Guiana in Central America. During his time there he desired to become a Catholic priest, and as soon as his service was completed, he entered seminary. Chévrier’s Christian character was being formed all the time, and he won a good name for himself among his fellow students and teachers. An interest to serve as a foreign missionary grew in his heart, and after a period of training he sailed for China in 1866 as a Lazarist priest.

Chévrier was appointed to the large northeast city of Tianjin. He adopted traditional Chinese dress and ate only Chinese food. Having arrived in China at the relatively advanced age of 45, Chévrier found the challenge of learning a foreign language difficult. On December 4, 1866, he wrote, “I try to improve my wretched pronunciation and to add some words to my Chinese alphabet. I even try to speak a few words of English.”[2] This time was frustrating for the Frenchman, for he was an evangelist at heart and desired nothing more than to “hunt souls.” After he had made sufficient progress in Mandarin, Chévrier excitedly reported that an extensive outreach he had participated in had resulted in

“202 Christians, 183 confessions, eight-six communions and forty-five catechumens. When I say 183 confessions, I mean 183 in a state of mind anxious to confess [their sins]; but amongst them are seven or eight big fish who are not yet completely landed, four of them being opium-smokers and four indifferent to all religion, whom I discovered…who are quite ready to give up the tyranny of the devil and enter the true fold.”[3]

The zeal and fruitfulness displayed by Claude Chévrier impressed his superiors, and in 1868 he was asked to lead the work in Tianjin. He was responsible for the construction of the Notre Dame des Victories, a cathedral “named with strange disregard for Chinese feelings,” [4] according to Christian historian Kenneth Scott Latourette in the context of the political environment of the time. As the summer of 1870 drew near the rumours that Christians were murdering children spread through the city like wildfire. Less than a week before the massacre Chévrier wrote,

“At this moment all the devils in hell seem to be let loose at Tianjin…. For the last fifteen days the most ridiculous calumnies have been spread and believed about the Sisters. They are said to buy children, to kill them, to tear out their eyes and their hearts, etc., etc. The Christians will soon be exterminated, and I hope we shall be at the head of them. One of my best catechists was brought to me yesterday in a basket quite unrecognisable, and with a broken thigh…. It is impossible for me to tell you all or even half of what happens every day…. What consoles me is the thought that our Lord often chooses for the foundation of His works the greatest crosses and trials. So, in spite of all, I go on hoping.”[5]

1. Herbert, The First Martyrs of the Holy Childhood, 63.
2. Herbert, The First Martyrs of the Holy Childhood, 128.
3. Herbert, The First Martyrs of the Holy Childhood, 130-131.
4. Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China, 350.
5. Herbert, The First Martyrs of the Holy Childhood, 290-291.