Maurice Tornay (31 August 1910 – 11 August 1949) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

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 ...

of the

Canons Regular of Saint Augustine Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

– of the Hospitallers of Saint Nicholas and Grand-St-Bernard of Mont Joux branch – who served as part of the missions in China and

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

. He fought against

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestantism, Protestant states, ...

religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within soc ...

in independent Tibet and was ambushed and murdered by

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

monks from the

Karma Gon Monastery Karma Gon Monastery, ( ; ) the original monastery of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, was founded in the 12th century by Düsum Khyenpa, the 1st Karmapa Lama in eastern Tibet at the age of 76. Karma Gon (''karma dgon'', also ''Karma Da ...

while he travelled to

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...

disguised as a pilgrim to appeal directly to the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

. He was beatified – on 16 May 1993 – after

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

confirmed that the late priest had been killed "in odium fidei" ('out of hatred of the faith').

Life

Maurice Tornay was born in

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...

in Switzerland on 31 August 1910 as the seventh of eight children to Jean-Joseph Tornay and Faustina Dossier. Two sisters were Josephine and Anna while a brother of his was Louis. He was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

on 13 September 1910 and made his

First Communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin Church tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communi ...

in 1917. His childhood saw signs of disposition to a pious life and one based on doing the work of

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

. On one particular evening his mother told him and his sister Anna of the life of

Agnes of Rome Agnes of Rome () is a virgin martyr, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Anglican Communion and Lutheranism, Lutheran Churches. St. Agn ...

. In 1925 he commenced high school at Saint Maurice and was there until 1931. In his free time he took friends to the chapel where he would read them passages from the works of

Francis de Sales Francis de Sales (french: François de Sales; it, Francesco di Sales; 21 August 156728 December 1622) was a Bishop of Geneva and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church. He became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to ...

and

Thérèse of Lisieux Thérèse of Lisieux (french: Thérèse de Lisieux ), born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), also known as Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (), was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite ...

's . He wrote to a provost to request admittance to the

Canons Regular Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...

and he was admitted into the

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

on 25 August 1931. After a team of missionaries left for China in January 1933 he was disappointed that he did not have his chance to go with them. He was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer in January 1934 and had to follow a special diet – he would skip this diet while in the missions; this also prompted an operation and a subsequent period of rest. He had recovered enough to make his vows on 8 September 1935. In 1936 he requested once more to be assigned to the missions in China – and left alongside Cyrille Lattion (1909–1997) and Nestor Rouiller – and spent a month and a half before arriving in China. In Weixi of

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

, he completed his theological studies and his studies in local languages. To his brother Louis he sent a letter stating: "I will never return". He and his three companions also underwent courses with a doctor and a dentist. The path to the priesthood was now open for him and he travelled for over two weeks to

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

in Vietnam where he received

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...

on 24 April 1938 from Bishop François Chaize; he wrote to his parents: "Your son is a priest!". He then received the task of teaching

seminarians A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

in Houa-Lo-Pa. In March 1945 saw him appointed as the

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of the Catholic Church at Yerkalo in southeast

. He braved the dangers of the

monks who were not fond of missionaries or of ethnic Tibetan Christians in general. The local lamas broke into his residence on the morning of 26 January 1946 and confiscated the church while forcing him into exile. He took up brief residence in Pame, China, (with an old drunkard) and learned of the anti-religious situation back in his parish from parishioners who came in through Pame on business. The lamas threatened him with death if he did not break off contact with his old parish while in May 1946 he received a letter from the Governor of Chamado who promised protection and inviting the priest to return to his parish. But on 6 May 1946 he set off though Gun-Akhio stopped him: "Stop! You are forbidden to go further". He asked the Apostolic Nuncio to China

Antonio Riberi Antonio Riberi (15 June 1897 – 16 December 1967) was a Monegasque prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the fifth apostolic nuncio to Ireland and later as the nuncio to Spain from 1962 until his death. He was elevated to the cardinala ...

for his assistance and the latter advised him to meet with the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

. He decided that he would travel to

to seek an audience with the latter to ask him for an edict of tolerance that would protect the regional Christians. On 10 July 1949 he joined a caravan of merchants and undertook the trip that would last two months and he shaved his beard and put on a Tibetan dress to avoid detection though was recognized during a brief stop. He was forced to leave the caravan though managed to rejoin it and said to his companion Doci: "We must not be afraid ... We will die for the Christians". Four armed lamas burst from the bush in the Tothong forest which prompted the priest to speak with them: "Don't shoot! Let's talk!" but two shots rang out and Doci was shot dead. More shots killed the priest on 11 August 1949. His remains were buried though transferred in 1985.

Beatification

The beatification process opened in the two cities of

Kangding Kangding (), also called Tachienlu and Dartsedo (; ), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the histor ...

and

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

in an informative process that opened in 1953 and concluded its business on 31 March 1963 while being titled as a

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

at the onset of the process. His spiritual writings received the approval of theologians on 5 January 1965 while an apostolic process was later held; the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

validated these processes on 27 April 1990. The dossier – known as the

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

– was submitted to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 1990 for assessment which allowed for theologians to meet on 28 February 1992 to approve the cause while the cardinal and bishop members followed suit on 16 June 1992.

approved the fact that the slain priest was killed in hatred of his Christian faith which allowed for the pope to preside over his 16 May 1993 beatification. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...

of the cause is the Rev. Emilio Dunoyer.

Celebration

The official date for the celebration of this Blessed is 12 August. Also, every year on this date, many friends of the Blessed come to La Rosière, the Blessed's birthplace, to celebrate a local mass in his memory. In 2021, a new chapel and a space recalling his life were dedicated to him inside the church of

Orsières Orsières is a municipality in the district of Entremont in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Orsières is first mentioned in 972 as ''Pons Ursarii''. In medieval times, it was a stage on the ''Via Francigena''. Geography Orsières ...

References

External links

Hagiography Circle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tornay, Maurice 1910 births 1949 deaths 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 20th-century Swiss Roman Catholic priests Augustinian canons Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Roman Catholic missionaries in Tibet Roman Catholic missionaries in China Martyred Roman Catholic priests People from Valais Swiss Roman Catholic missionaries Swiss beatified people Venerated Catholics Victims of anti-Catholic violence Violence against Christians Swiss people murdered abroad People murdered in China Catholic Church in Sichuan Christianity in Yunnan

Life

Beatification

Celebration

See also

References

External links