Vincent Lebbe

Father Frédéric-Vincent Lebbe (雷鳴遠) (1877-1940) was a Roman Catholic missionary to China whose advocacy led the pope to appoint the first native Chinese bishops. Born in Belgium, he chose to become a Chinese citizen at a time when missionaries, like all Westerners, enjoyed legal privileges in China, including immunity from Chinese law. He was captured by the Chinese Communists in 1940 and died later that year.

Lebbe was born on August 19, 1877 in Ghent, Belgium into a devout Catholic family. His father was Flemish a public notary, and his mother was of half French and half English descent. He was the eldest son and was baptized under the name Vincent. When he was 11 years old, he read about the martyrdom of French Catholic (Lazarist) missionary Jean-Gabriel Perboyre in Wuchang, China in 1840, inspiring him want to become a missionary in China. In 1895, in Paris, Lebbe entered into the Lazarist order. While Lebbe was a seminary student in 1900, the Boxer Rebellion occurred in China, and the Belgian missionary Ferdinand Hamer was martyred in Inner Mongolia. Lebbe nonetheless decided to go to China to promote Catholicism.

In 1901, Lebbe followed Pierre-Marie-Alphonse Favier, Bishop of Beijing to China. He was ordained in Beijing in 1902, and was thereafter sent to Xiaohan village of Wuqing County (now part of Tianjin Municipality) and elsewhere in the Beijing-Tianjin region to do mission work. In 1903, Lebbe presided over the rebuilding of the Xiaohan church, damaged during the Boxer Rebellion.

Upon reaching China, Lebbe strove to study Chinese culture, and learned to read Chinese books, speak fluent standard Mandarin, and write beautiful calligraphy. Lebbe eventually would dress in Chinese clothes, live according to Chinese customs, and interact primarily with Chinese friends and coreligionists. In 1912, the Vicariate Apostolic of Tianjin was established, and Lebbe was able to achieve spectacular results in his miss work, being promoted to the position of vicar for the new Vicariate (a position second only to the Vicariate's Bishop). On October 10, 1915, Lebbe and the Chinese Catholics founded the Catholic newspaper "Yishibao" (《益世報》) in Tianjin's Nanshi District on Rongye Street (outside of the Concessions), which is considered one of the "Four Great Newspapers of the Republican period" (民国四大报刊). Lebbe's command of Chinese allowed him to interact with the Chinese intelligentsia of Tianjin, converting dozens and attracting the attention of many more, especially with lecture hall discussions on religion, ethics, and patriotism.

...
Wikipedia