Imagine being in your early 40s, in a comfortable enough job as director of novices at a seminary in Paris, and leaving everything behind to volunteer to go to China on mission. This was the decision of Father (Saint) Francis Regis Clet, C.M., whose feast day is next week (Feb. 18). In fact Francis Regis had petitioned to go to China as a missionary several times, but his superiors did not approve his request until 1791. The rest reads like a PBS documentary script:
On their way to Lorient, where they were to board ship, Fr. Clet and two deacons made their final overnight stop at the seminary in Vannes, where Pierre René Rogue was professor of dogma; he would be guillotined five years later.
They sailed from Lorient in early April 1791. Francis and his two companions became numbers 25, 26, and 27 in the chronological list of Vincentians in China.
On January 1, 1820, (at age 71) Clet was found guilty of “deceiving the Chinese people by preaching Christianity” and was sentenced to strangulation on a cross.
The following SlideShare presentation fills in some of the details of his eventful journey as a Vincentian.
