Jean-Gabriel Perboyre

St. John Gabriel Perboyre, C.M.
Statue of St. John Gabriel Perboyre
Priest, missionary and martyr
Born	6 January 1802 Le Puech, Montgesty, Lot, France
Died	11 September 1840 Wuchang, Hubei, Imperial China
Venerated in	Catholic Church (China and the Congregation of the Mission)
Beatified	10 November 1889, Rome, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized	2 June 1996, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Vincentian Motherhouse, Rue du Bac, Paris, France
Feast	11 September

John Gabriel Perboyre, C.M. (French: Jean-Gabriel Perboyre), was a French priest, who served as a missionary in China, where he became a martyr. He was canonized in 1996 by Pope John Paul II.

Perboyre was born in 1802 at Le Puech (now in the commune of Montgesty), Lot, France, one of eight children born to Pierre Perboyre and Marie Rigal, who ran a farm. (Five of them would enter either the Vincentian Fathers or the Daughters of Charity.) He led a routine childhood and youth, displaying no particular religious fervor. This changed in 1816, however, after his younger brother, Louis, was accepted into the Vincentian seminary recently founded in Montauban by their uncle, Jacques Perboyre, C.M. John Gabriel was asked by their parents to accompany his brother until he had adapted to his new environment. To his surprise, John Gabriel felt drawn to follow this life himself.

When the teachers at the minor seminary saw Perboyre's intelligence and piety, they suggested that he enroll formally in the seminary. He wrote to his father, offering to return to help on the farm should his father wish, but indicating that he felt that he was called to serve as a priest. His parents gave him their blessing and full support in this.

Perboyre entered the novitiate of the Congregation at the minor seminary of Montauban in December 1818. On the feast of the Holy Innocents 1820, he made the four promises of the Congregation, hoping to serve in its overseas missions. He was ordained to the priesthood on 23 September 1825, in the chapel of the Daughters of Charity, by Louis Dubourg, S.S., newly installed as the Bishop of Montauban, and on the following day he presided for the first time at Mass. In 1832 he was assigned by the superiors of the Congregation to supervise the novitiate in Paris.