Pierre and Marie (Rigal) Perboyne had eight kids, so perhaps having only two of them die in the missions to China was not such a heavy blow. It depends on their faith, and maybe on what happened to the other six kids. Jean-Gabriel followed his older brother into the seminary. JG became a professor of theology and rector of the seminary after being ordained. When his brother died while evangelizing China, Jean-Gabriel replaced him.
He arrived in 1836. Three years later, the British attacked China in the first Opium War. JG was a French Catholic, not a British Anglican, but that distinction was lost on the Chinese authorities. They arrested him, hung him by his thumbs, and beat him with bamboo. Then, on September 11, 1840, they marched him to Red Mountain in Ou-Tchang-Fou, tied him to a cross, and strangled him.
And on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11/2001, I think it is worth contemplating the notion that one person's holy martyr is another person's villainous infidel. To a third person, all of the above may deluded fools. For this reason, we must be more dedicated to our values and ideals than to the humans we follow.
Kind of sloppy of me to hit this saint two years in a row without noticing. I need a better system. I also need to find a new saint for 9/11/2013.
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