François-Régis Clet (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 劉格來;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Liú Gélái; 19 August 1748 – 18 February 1820) is one of the

Martyr Saints of China The Martyr Saints of China ( zh, t=中華殉道聖人, s=中华殉道圣人, first=t, p=Zhōnghuá xùndào shèngrén), or Augustine Zhao Rong and his Companions, are 120 saints of the Catholic Church. The 87 Chinese Catholics and 33 Western ...

Biography

Early life

Francois-Regis Clet was born in

Grenoble, France lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in 1748. His family was middle class and quite large. Clet's parents, Césaire and Claudine Clet, had fifteen children, Francois-Regis being the tenth. He was baptized soon after birth in the church of Louis. In 1769, he entered the

Congregation of the Mission , logo = , image = Vincentians.png , abbreviation = CM , nickname = Vincentians, Paules, Lazarites, Lazarists, Lazarians , established = , founder = Vincent de Paul , fou ...

(

Vincentians Vincentian can refer to: *A citizen of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *A person from Saint Vincent (island), the largest island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *A member of one of the orders or societies in the Vincentian Family, both Roman ...

), where he was later ordained. He worked as a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

in Annecy and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He worked at the seminary for fifteen years until 1788. In 1788, Francois-Regis Clet was selected to travel to Paris, where he participated in the election of the new superior general, Jean-Félix-Joseph Cayla de la Garde. While Clet was in Paris, he was witness to the destruction of the clergy by an angry mob. This event led to Clet's eagerness to volunteer for a mission to China, a place where Christianity was not accepted.

Voyage to China

In July of 1789, he went to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. He arrived at his first destination, Macao, that October. In Macao, Francis-Regis and his two companions learned Chinese. Clet struggled with the Chinese language, but was still able to baptize at least one hundred people during his first mission in the Jiangxi Province. In 1973, he transferred to Huguang. Huguang was not very accepting to foreign missionaries. This is where one of the largest Christian settlements that Clet helped to establish was destroyed. In 1811, after a Chinese Catholic was arrested, documents to the bishop were discovered. Due to a suspected plot, Chinese Christians were demanded to reject the Christian faith, and foreigners were ordered out. Despite attempts to stay in hiding, Francois-Regis was arrested in June of 1819 at the age of 71.

Final Days

After Clet was arrested, he was brutally tortured and held under very poor conditions. After about a week, Clet was transferred to Kaifeng for one month. He was questioned and tortured again before being transferred to Wuchang. In Wuchang, he was treated better. He was even able to receive communion. While he was there he learned that his companion, Fr. Lamiot, had been arrested due to the discovery of three letters that had been exchanged between him and Clet. Eventually, Clet was to appear before a court of justice, where he was sentenced to death for the religious corruption of the Emperor's subjects. In his final moments, at age 71, he prayerfully dedicated the sacrifices of his life to God. On February 18th, 1820, Clet was tied on a cross and strangled with a rope until he suffocated to death.

Feast Day

Francois-Regis Clet was declared

venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

in 1843. He was then beatified in 1900. On October 1st, 2000, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II. The feast day of Francois-Regis Clet is celebrated on February 18th.

References

External links

1748 births 1820 deaths Clergy from Grenoble Catholic martyrs French Roman Catholic saints Beatifications by Pope Leo XIII Canonizations by Pope John Paul II Venerated Catholics {{saint-stub