1940 - Michel Nussbaum

September 17, 1940

Bame, Yunnan

A slice of Christianity on the Tibetan Plateau: A cross on top the Catholic Church at Yanjing dwarfed by the huge mountains encircling the town. [Julian Hawken]

Michel Victor Nussbaum was born in the town of Schweinheim, north France, on September 27, 1884. He entered the seminary of the Missions Etrangères de Paris in 1904 and was ordained a priest four years later. Less than two months later, on November 18, 1908, Nussbaum departed his homeland for his appointment in one of the most lonely and isolated mission stations in the world—Yanjing in Tibet. Amazingly, Nussbaum remained at Yanjing for the rest of his life. For 32 years he never took a furlough, never saw his family again, and even trips to surrounding mission stations were rare. Yanjing was his home and God-given ministry, and he was happy there. In 1932 Nussbaum was appointed the senior pastor of the flourishing work at Yanjing.

In 1940, Michel Nussbaum was finally persuaded to attend an annual missionary retreat at Yanmen in the northern part of neighbouring Yunnan Province. It was to be his last. After enjoying a week’s fellowship with his coworkers, Nussbaum departed for home on September 10th accompanied by a muleteer, a servant, and three women teachers from the convent at Yanmen. On September 17th, the travellers stopped for a rest under a large chestnut tree near the village of Napu.

As he was resting, Nussbaum noticed a woman standing on the other side of the Lancang (Mekong) River who was making excited gestures at him. He couldn’t hear her because of the roar of the water, but understood that she was warning the travellers of danger. Before they had the chance to flee, six bandits suddenly overtook them. They pressed a sword against Nussbaum’s chest and demanded money. Since the missionaries did not have enough cash to satisfy the bandits, they gave them given eight large bags of tea and two blankets instead. The group was shaken, but decided to continue the journey in the hope of clearing the bandit-infested area. Four hours later they arrived at the village of Bame, where a Christian family took them in for the night. Nussbaum was given a room above the stable. At about midnight,

“a man climbed the ladder, looked over the situation, hurried away, and came back with his companions. They forced everybody to get up, tied their hands behind their backs, and bound the priest to a column. The bandits then pillaged the whole place, loaded up the animals, and prepared the caravan to move.”[1]

What happened next is unclear. What is known is that the barefoot Michel Nussbaum was shot in the back from point-blank range. The nuns and the servants were allowed to go free. Nussbaum’s body was left laying facedown in the dirt. The industrious, peace-loving Frenchman was dead, and many tears of grief were shed by Tibetan believers who had been touched by his life. Nussbaum’s body was carried to Yanjing and buried on September 30, 1940.