Augustin Schoeffler (1822–1851) was a French saint and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and a 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 ...

. He was 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 partic ...

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

who joined the Foreign Missions of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

. He worked as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

and was one of two French missionaries killed in northern Vietnam between 1847 and 1851. At the time, it was illegal to proselytize in Vietnam. His feast day is May 1 (May 2 locally in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Early life and education

Augustin Schoeffler was born on the 22 of November, 1822, in Mittelbronn, France."Saint Augustine Schoeffler", Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris
/ref> He was baptized the next day. From 1834 to 1842 he studied at the minor seminary of Pont-à-Mousson and the college of

Phalsbourg Phalsbourg (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Phalsburch'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, with a population of about 5,000. It lies high on the west slopes of the Vosges, northwest of Strasbourg by rail. ...

. From 1842 to 1846 Schoeffler studied Philosophy at the major seminary of Nancy. On the 5 October 1846, he began training in the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Paris. On May 29, 1847, Augustin Schoeffler was ordained a priest in Paris.

Missionary life

On November 18, 1847, Father Schoeffler left Antwerp arriving in

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, includ ...

on July 6, 1848. From 1848 to 1851 he worked as missionary while learning the Vietnamese language. In the spring of 1850 his bishop gave him the task of

evangelizing In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are in ...

Son Tay in the north. Schoeffler was arrested on March 1, 1851, and on March 5 found guilty of proselytizing. He was beheaded on May 1, 1851, at Son Tay. Martyrdom of St Augustin Schoeffler

As Father Schoeffler walked to his place of execution, a placard, which read, "He preached truly the whole charge of preaching the religion of Jesus. His crime is patent. Let Mr. Augustin be beheaded, and cast into a stream." was carried before him. Augustin Schoeffler's head was thrown into the Red River, and was never recovered. The crowd rushed to collect relics. Some even uprooted the grass that was stained with his blood. His body was buried on the site of his execution. Two days later, local Christians exhumed the body and reburied it in a Christian village nearby.

Veneration

On September 24, 1857, Augustin Schoeffler 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 Cat ...

by Pope Pius IX. He was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...

on May 7, 1900. He was made a saint by

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 ...

on June 19, 1988."Saint Augustin V. Schoeffler Collection", University of Notre Dame Archives
/ref> The Rue St Augustin Schoeffler is located in Mittelbronn.

Relics

As of May 10, 2009, a relic of Augustin Schoeffler can be found at the Assumption Grotto Church in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Descendants of Schoeffler's family live in the area and attend the church.Te Deum laudamus!
/ref>

References

External links

Archives of the Paris Foreign Missions Society
* http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/51590 * https://web.archive.org/web/20130308174335/http://www.op-stjoseph.org/dom-images/pdf-files/witnesses.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Schoeffler, Augustin 1822 births 1851 deaths People from Moselle (department) 19th-century Christian saints 19th-century executions by Vietnam 19th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Roman Catholic missionaries in Vietnam French people executed abroad French Roman Catholic saints Vietnamese Roman Catholic saints Martyred Roman Catholic priests Paris Foreign Missions Society missionaries Christian martyrs executed by decapitation People executed by Vietnam by decapitation 1851 in Vietnam Executed people from Lorraine