Pierre Lambert de la Motte, MEP (16 January 1624 – 15 January 1679) was a French

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

. He was a founding member of the

Paris Foreign Missions Society 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 de ...

and became a missionary in Asia.

Biography

Lambert de la Motte was born 16 January 1624 in La Boissière, Calvados. 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 triling ...

, 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 François Pallu, MEP (1626–1684) was a French bishop. He was a founding member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and became a missionary in Asia. Life Born in Tours, now in Indre-et-Loire, Pallu was recruited by Alexander de Rhodes, SJ, ...

and

Ignace Cotolendi Ignace Cotolendi, MEP (23 March 1630 – 16 August 1662) was a French bishop. He was a founding member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and became a missionary in Asia. Life Born in Brignoles, Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var ...

. 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 A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. 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 Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tours (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Turonensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Tours'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The archdiocese has roots that go back to the 3rd cent ...

. The three bishops left France (1660–62) to go to their respective missions, and crossed

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and India on foot, since Portugal would have refused to take non-

Padroado The ''Padroado'' (, "patronage") was an arrangement between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Portugal and later the Portuguese Republic, through a series of concordats by which the Holy See delegated the administration of the local churches and gr ...

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 Myeik (, or ; mnw, ဗိက်, ; th, มะริด, , ; formerly Mergui, ) is a rural city in Tanintharyi Region in Myanmar (Burma), located in the extreme south of the country on the coast off an island on the Andaman Sea. , the estimate ...

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

18 months later. Mgr Pallu joined Mgr Lambert in the capital of Siam,

Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to: * Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767 ** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom * Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locally ...

, after 24 months overland, but Mgr Cotolendi died upon arrival in India on 6 August 1662.

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 Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; vi, Đàng Trong (17th century - 18th century, Việt Nam (1802-1831), Đại Nam (1831-1862), Nam Kỳ (1862-1945); km, កូសាំងស៊ីន, Kosăngsin; french: Cochinchine; ) is a historical exony ...

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includi ...

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

(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 A ...

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 Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

). In 1669, Mgr Lambert went to

together with the secular priests Jacques de Bourges and Gabriel Bouchard to establish a church there, and created the congregation of the

Lovers of the Holy Cross The Lovers of the Holy Cross (french: Amantes de la Croix, Vietnamese: '' Dòng Mến Thánh Giá'') is a federation of a number of congregations of diocesan right of religious sisters, founded in 1670 by the first Vicar Apostolic in Tonkin an ...

(''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

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

Biography

See also

Notes