1900 - Jean Viaud, Edouard Agnius, & Jules Bayart

July 11, 1900

Guangning, Liaoning

July 11, 1900, saw the martyrdoms of three Catholic priests in Liaoning Province, all of whom were members of the Missions Etrangères de Paris: 36-year-old Jean Viaud, the young Edouard Agnius (25), and the even younger Jules Bayart (23), who had arrived in China less than a month before his martyrdom.

Jean Marie Viaud was born in 1864 and attended the seminary of Nantes in his early 20s. In 1890 he was ordained a priest and went for advanced training at the Missions Etrangères de Paris. Because of his previous studies he was only required to attend for one year. On September 2, 1891, Viaud sailed for northeast China. He was stationed at Xiaoheizhan, a mission he became leader of three years later. During his nine years of service in China, Viaud

“established the mission at Guangning and converted a great number of pagans. At the beginning of 1899 he led the area of Xiaoheizhan which contained 2,226 Catholics and 4,157 catechumens spread in 171 villages. Viaud was driven out of Xiaoheizhan at the end of June, 1900, and took refuge in a village called Zhezetuan with two young missionaries, Agnius and Bayart. They tried to go to a nearby town on July 11th, but were ambushed by the Boxers along the way and massacred.”[1]

Edouard Eugene Joseph Agnius was born on September 27, 1874, at Haubourdin, France. He studied in Belgium before entering the seminary of the Paris Mission in 1892, and was ordained a priest five years later, before joining the work in Southern Manchuria. From his base in Guangning he was just beginning to see the fruit of his labours when the Boxers cut him down in 1900.

Jules Joseph Bayart was born on March 31, 1877, in the French town of Hem. After more than five years of study he was ordained a priest on March 10, 1900, and left for China the following May 2nd, unaware that his ministry in China would last less than a month. Arriving in Southern Manchuria, Bayart was with Jean Viaud and Edouard Agnius when the Boxers swooped on them and cut them to pieces. Their bodies were thrown into a nearby river.

1. My translation of the Biographical Note of Jean Viaud in the Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris, China Biographies and Obituaries, 1800-1899.