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Bernard Thaddée Petitjean (14 June 1829 – 7 October 1884) was a French Roman Catholic priest who served as a missionary to Japan as well as becoming the country's first
vicar apostolic
A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...
.
Life
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He was born in Blanzy">Blanzy-sur-Bourbince and studied at the minor and major seminaries in Autun. He was ordained into the priesthood on 21 May 1853 and then became a professor at the minor seminary in Autun followed by a parish ministry between 1854 and 1856 at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs. He was made an apostolic missionary in 1856 and preached in several villages. On 27 December 1858 he was made
almoner
An almoner (} ' (alms), via the popular Latin '.
History
Christians have historically been encouraged to donate one-tenth of their income as a tithe to their church and additional offerings as needed for the poor. The first deacons, mentioned ...
to the nuns of order of the
Sisters of the Infant Jesus
The Sisters of the Infant Jesus, also known as the Dames of Saint Maur, are a religious institute of the Catholic Church originating from Paris, France and dedicated to teaching.
History
Origins
In 1659 Barré, who was a respected scholar wi ...
at Chauffailles - this experience of apostolic ministry and of spiritual direction moved him to enter the
Missions étrangères de Paris
The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (french: Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris, short M.E.P.) is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons ...
seminary aged thirty. Exactly nine months later he set out for Japan, to which he had been designated by his superiors.
He initially stayed for two years on the
Ryūkyū Islands
The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...
then in 1863 moved to
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
then
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
with R. P. Furet. Japan had just been forced to re-admit foreigners after banning them for many years. He became a French teacher and took part in the construction of a church dedicated to the
Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan
The were a group of Catholics who were executed by crucifixion on February 5, 1597, in Nagasaki, Japan. Their martyrdom is especially significant in the history of the Catholic Church in Japan.
A promising beginning to Catholic missions in Jap ...
, overlooking the sea - it was designed by Girard and Furet and opened on 19 February 1865. A few weeks after the church opened, it was where Petitjean met the descendants of the
Kakure Kirishitan
''Kakure kirishitan'' () is a modern term for a member of the Catholic Church in Japan that went underground at the start of the Edo period in the early 17th century due to Christianity's repression by the Tokugawa shogunate.
History
Origin ...
or 'hidden Christians', who were drawn there by the construction of the church and its cross, like the crosses they had hidden in their homes. Mostly simple fishing people or artisans, they only discretely introduced themselves to him, fearful of eventual reprisals. He decided to visit their villages. By 8 June 1865, Petitjean had already met twenty five hidden Christians, who had kept up certain prayers, a cross and meeting with an elder.
Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX ( it, Pio IX, ''Pio Nono''; born Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878, the longest verified papal reign. He was notable for convoking the First Vatican ...
made Petitjean bishop of Myriophite ''in partibus'' and vicar apostolic of Japan on 11 May 1866. He was consecrated a bishop by Guillemin in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
the following 21 October. The imperial Japanese government imprisoned and killed many Christians in a wave of reprisals and in April and June 1868 two edicts forbade Christianity. From October 1869 to January 1870, 4,500 Christians were taken from
Urakami
Urakami was an area in the northern part of the city of Nagasaki, Japan.
History
In 1614, by the orders of shōgun leader Tokugawa Ieyasu, Christianity was banned in Japan in order to suppress European influence and to prevent the undermining of ...
and exiled to the
Goto Islands
GoTo (goto, GOTO, GO TO or other case combinations, depending on the programming language) is a statement found in many computer programming languages. It performs a one-way transfer of control to another line of code; in contrast a function ca ...
by sea. Petitjean was sent back to France in June 1868 and took part in the
First Vatican Council
The First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the First Vatican Council or Vatican I was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecu ...
in Rome. He wrote to the Japanese authorities and to the representatives of the French government, but to no avail, especially after the fall of
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
's regime. The imperial repression of Christianity only ended in 1873 and that year Petitjean was allowed back by the Japanese authorities, initially only on the condition that he only give the sacraments to foreign soldiers, sailors and merchants in Japan's ports. Pius IX sent Petitjean the
apostolic letter
Ecclesiastical letters are publications or announcements of the organs of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority, e.g. the synods, but more particularly of pope and bishops, addressed to the faithful in the form of letters.
Letters of the pop ...
''Dum asperrimam'' in May 1873 to express his joy at the end of the persecution and the start of a limited degree of tolerance of Christianity by the authorities.
Peitjean and his auxiliary bishop Laucaigne (titular bishop of Apollonia from 22 February 1874) had to set up a Catholic hierarchy and structures in Japan from scratch. Missionaries were sent with different roles, including some on scholarly and scientific missions. Nuns also came over from the Sisters of the Infant Jesus nunneries at Saint-Maur and Chauffailles, sent by their founder, Mother
Reine Antier
Reine Antier (19 November 1801 – 28 October 1883) was a French Roman Catholic nun. She is known as the founder of the Congrégation des Soeurs de l'Enfant-Jésus de Chauffailles, an order of teaching nuns.
Early years
Reine Antier was born on 19 ...
. Towards the end of 1875, Petitjean went to Rome to ask that his vicariate be divided in two between north and south Japan, with him retaining the former. The latter was entrusted to
Pierre-Marie Osouf
Pierre-Marie is a French masculine given name, and may refer to:
* Pierre-Marie Carré (born 1947), French prelate of the Catholic Church
* Pierre-Marie Coty (1927–2020), Ivorian Roman Catholic bishop
* Pierre-Marie Delfieux (1934–2013), Fre ...
- Petitjean was one of two bishops to consecrate him in 1877 in the chapel of the Missions étrangères on rue de Bac in Paris.
[Letter, ''Pastoris æterni'', ''Jus Pont. de Propagandae Fidei'', VI, 2nd part, p. 302, 20 June 1876] Initially based in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
, where he built a church, he later returned to Nagasaki. He died in Nagasaki on 7 October 1884 and was buried at the foot of the altar in
Oura Church
The Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan (日本二十六聖殉教者聖堂) also is a Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic minor basilica and Co-cathedral in Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan, built soon after the end of the Japa ...
. At the time of his death Japan had 30,230 Christians, two bishops, 53 European missionaries (mainly French), three Japanese-born priests (all ordained by Petitjean on 31 December 1882, the first ever in the country), two seminaries with 79 students and 65 schools with 3,331 pupils.
Coat of arms
*Gules, a statue of Our Lady, crowned, bearing the Infant Christ in her arms, standing on a cloud at the base of the shield
*Motto: Ipse conteret caput. - Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis.
References
Sculpture of Petitjean in the garden of the .">Church of the Twenty-Six Martyrs.
Sources
Missions étrangères de Paris - Biography of Petitjean
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petitjean, Bernard
Apostolic vicars
French Roman Catholic bishops in Asia
19th-century French Roman Catholic bishops
Roman Catholic missionaries in Japan
Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries
1829 births
1884 deaths
People from Saône-et-Loire
Catholic Church in Japan