1880 - Eugene Creuse & Two Chinese Christians

November 5, 1880

Xilin, Guangxi

Eugene Creuse was born in Paris, France, on September 22, 1847. After graduating from high school, Creuse faced a crossroad in his life. He could enter the business world where certain opportunities had already presented themselves, or he could choose to follow the path tread by his elder brother, who had died as a missionary in north Vietnam just a few months after arriving there. Creuse struggled with the decision before realizing the opportunity to make God known among those who had never heard his Name outweighed the benefits that any worldly success might bring. He entered the Missions Etrangères de Paris to be trained for missionary service. Ordained a Catholic priest on February 24, 1877, he departed France for China on the following April 8th.

Creuse was appointed to work with the mission at Xilin in Guangxi, where Auguste Chapdelaine and a number of others had been slaughtered in 1856. Creuse was aware of the danger, but was not to be intimidated by the threat of death. Almost from the moment he arrived, the hostile locals opposed Creuse. Although he was not outwardly wounded by the persecutions, his health quickly deteriorated. The mission leader of the province, Pierre Foucard, later lamented,

“Creuse faced great hardship and opposition, but he endured it all courageously and never complained. Whenever I enquired about his health in my letters, he never answered. I gave him the task of teaching and nurturing several hundred new believers. He embraced this call with the greatest of care and energy, but the weight of responsibility weakened his health too much to be able to continue.”[1]

On the advice of his coworkers, Eugene Creuse decided to leave his station in Guangxi and travel to Hong Kong for medical attention. He started the river journey accompanied by two Chinese Christians on November 5, 1880. Just a few miles out of Xilin the trio boarded a different vessel that would take them on the next stage of their journey to Bose. They never arrived. When the missionaries made enquiries as to the whereabouts of Creuse and his two Chinese companions, they were told that the boat they were on had sunk in the rapids and the three passengers had drowned, but their bodies had not been recovered. The Missions Etrangères de Paris, however,

“following new investigations, it seems likely that our co-worker did not die the victim of an accident, but that he was assassinated along with his travelling companions, either by brigands or possibly even by the captain of the boat, whose testimony to the authorities was inconsistent with information received elsewhere. Whatever the truth of the matter, Creuse went to heaven to receive his eternal reward.”[2]

Eugene Creuse was 33-years-old at the time of his death, and had worked in China just three years.

1. My translation of the Eugene Creuse Obituary in the Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris, China Biographies and Obituaries, 1800-1899.
2. Eugene Creuse Obituary in the Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris.