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Biography

Auguste Chapdelaine

Portrait of Auguste Chapdelaine

About Auguste Chapdelaine

Auguste Chapdelaine was a French priest who joined the Paris Foreign Missions Society after serving in the countryside near Coutances. He travelled to China in 1852 and worked in Guangxi, where an early attempt to establish a mission ended with robbery and a return to Guangzhou.

He returned to Xilin to serve the small Catholic community. The church account describes his arrest during renewed persecution in February 1856 and his death after imprisonment and torture. It gives conflicting dates within that month, so the profile preserves the month without selecting an unsupported day.

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