Barthélemy Bruguière (February 12, 1792 – October 20, 1835) was the first
Apostolic Vicar of Korea and former
Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Siam.
["Bishop Barthélemy Bruguière, M.E.P."]
David M. Cheney. Retrieved January 4, 2017
Biography
Bruguière was born in
Raissac-d'Aude
Raissac-d'Aude () is a commune in the Aude
Aude (; ) is a department in Southern France, located in the Occitanie region and named after the river Aude. The departmental council also calls it " Cathar Country" (French: ''Pays cathare'' ...
,
France and studied
at the seminary of
Carcassonne.
[Journal of the Siam Society: "Bishop Barthélemy Bruguière (1792–1835)" by Kennon Breazeale]
2008 - Vol. 96 He was ordained a priest on December 23, 1815
and then taught at the seminary for a decade.
Wanting to do missionary work, he joined the
La Société des Missions Etrangères (MEP) with the intention of going to
Vietnam.
In 1827, after arriving in Asia, he was instead assigned to the
Apostolic Vicariate of Siam
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok ( la, Archidiœcesis Bangkokensis, th, อัครสังฆมณฑลกรุงเทพฯ) is a Latin archdiocese in Thailand. The bishop's seat is the is the Assumption Cathedral, Bangkok.
...
where the existing bishop,
Esprit-Marie-Joseph Florens had only one missionary priest.
He learned the
Thai language but soon found out the majority of Christians were typically not of
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
ancestry but rather
Khmer,
Chinese,
Vietnamese, and those of mixed
Portuguese-Asian background; as the Thai Buddhists were not as amenable to conversion, he focused his efforts on the minority groups.
Bruguière taught at the school at the
Church of the Assumption for several years and then after repeated requests by Florens for a replacement,
he was appointed by
Pope Leo XII on February 5, 1828, the
Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Siam and Titular Bishop of ''Capsus.''
He was consecrated bishop on June 29, 1829 by Bishop
Esprit-Marie-Joseph Florens,
Vicar Apostolic of Siam
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok ( la, Archidiœcesis Bangkokensis, th, อัครสังฆมณฑลกรุงเทพฯ) is a Latin archdiocese in Thailand. The bishop's seat is the is the Assumption Cathedral, Bangkok.
...
.
In 1830, after two new missionary priests arrived in Bangkok (Claude-Antoine Deschavannes and
Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix), Bruguière moved to
Penang
Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...
in 1831 where he taught at the MEP-run General College along with
Jacques-Honoré Chastan,
Jean-Baptiste Boucho, Jean Pierre Barbe, and
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert.
An influx of funding and MEP missionaries into the region lessened the need for him to remain in Siam and it was proposed that he go to Korea and establish a new mission.
Bishop Florens supported the mission despite the fact that it would leave him without a coadjutor when he died.
On September 9, 1831, Bruguière was appointed the first
Apostolic Vicar of Korea by
Pope Gregory XVI.
In 1935, he sailed from
Singapore to
Manila and then to China first to
Macau then to
Fujian Province and finally to
Shanxi Province. Due to persecutions against Christians in China and political changes in Korea, he first took shelter amongst the Christian population in
Xiwanzi where he met MEP missionary
Pierre-Philibert Maubant who volunteered for the Korea mission.
On October 7, 1835, they set out but before he could reach Korea, Bruguière became sick and died on October 20, 1835.
Maubant would later be joined by Jacques-Honoré Chastan and Laurent Joseph Marius Imbert where they would eventually be arrested and martyred.
In 1931, Bruguière's remains were moved and reburied in a cemetery in Seoul.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruguiere, Barthelemy
1792 births
1835 deaths
Bishops appointed by Pope Leo XII
Bishops appointed by Pope Gregory XVI
Apostolic vicars of Siam
Paris Foreign Missions Society bishops
Roman Catholic bishops of Seoul