Pierre Lambert de la Motte,

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(16 January 1624 – 15 January 1679) was a French bishop. He was a founding member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and became a missionary in Asia.

Biography

Lambert de la Motte was born 16 January 1624 in

La Boissière, Calvados La Boissière () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. Population Personalities *Pierre Lambert de la Motte See also *Communes of the Calvados department The following is a list of the 528 ...

. He was ordained a priest on 27 December 1655Cheney, David M., "Bishop Pierre Lambert de la Motte, M.E.P.", Catholic Hierarchy
/ref> and was recruited by

Alexander de Rhodes Alexandre de Rhodes (15 March 1593 – 5 November 1660) was an Avignonese Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the ''Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum'', the first trilingu ...

, SJ, as a

secular clergy In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogra ...

volunteer to become a missionary in Asia, together with François Pallu and Ignace Cotolendi. These were sent to the Far East as Apostolic vicars. On 29 July 1658

Pope Alexander VII Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667. He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...

appointed him as the first Apostolic Vicar of Cochin and as titular bishop of Beirut. On 11 June 1660 he was consecrated bishop by

Victor Le Bouthillier Victor Le Bouthillier de Chavigny (1590-1670) was a French politician and clergyman. He was a counselor of state and served as almoner to Marie de Medici then to Gaston, Duke of Orleans. He was Coadjutor bishop, coadjutor of the archdiocese of Tour ...

, Archbishop of Tours. The three bishops left France (1660–62) to go to their respective missions, and crossed Persia and India on foot, since Portugal would have refused to take non- Padroado missionaries by ship, and the Dutch and the English refused to take Catholic missionaries. Mgr Lambert left

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

on 26 November 1660 accompanied by Fathers De Bourges and Deydier, and reached Mergui in Siam 18 months later. Mgr Pallu joined Mgr Lambert in the capital of Siam, Ayutthaya, after 24 months overland, but Mgr Cotolendi died upon arrival in India on 6 August 1662. Siam thus was the first country to receive the evangelization efforts of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, to be followed by new missions later in Cochinchina, Tonkin and parts of China.''Missions étrangères de Paris. 350 ans au service du Christ'' 2008 Editeurs Malesherbes Publications, Paris p.4 Instructions aux Missionaires 1665

In 1664, Mgr Lambert together with Mgr Pallu presided a synod in Ayutthaya. They founded in 1665-66 the general seminary in Ayutthaya, Siam (the ''Seminary of Saint Joseph'' then ''Seminary of the Holy Angels'', at the origin of the

College General The College General ( ms, Seminari Tinggi Katolik) is a Roman Catholic interdiocesan seminary located in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, Malaysia. The college's foundation can be traced back to the 1665 establishment of the Seminary of Saint Joseph in Ay ...

now in

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 ...

, Malaysia). In 1669, Mgr Lambert went to Tonkin together with the

secular priests In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. A secular priest (sometimes known as a diocesan priest) is a priest who commits themselves to a certain geogra ...

Jacques de Bourges and Gabriel Bouchard to establish a church there, and created the congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross (''Amantes de la Croix de Jésus-Christ'') in 1670.''Asia in the Making of Europe'', p.242-243
/ref> Mgr Lambert chiefly worked in Siam; he went to Cochinchina in two occasions: from September 1671 to March 1672, and from September 1675 to March 1676. He died in 1679, in the capital Ayutthaya of Siam.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert de la Motte, Pierre 1624 births 1679 deaths French Roman Catholic titular bishops Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Vietnam French Roman Catholic missionaries French Roman Catholic bishops in Asia Christian missionaries in the Ayutthaya Kingdom Roman Catholic missionaries in Thailand Roman Catholic missionaries in Vietnam French expatriates in Vietnam French expatriates in Thailand