1900 - Louis Bourgeois & Auguste le Guevel

July 15, 1900

Jinxi, Liaoning

Louis Marie Joseph Bourgeois was born in the French town of Chapelle-des-Boise on December 21, 1863. He put his trust in Christ as a teenager, and gained a strong desire to serve the Lord as a missionary. In 1884, at the age of 20, he entered the Missions Etrangères de Paris, graduating four years later. Bourgeois left for China on December 12, 1888, residing at Yingkou in the present-day Liaoning Province. He was involved with leading an orphanage and a convent. When Bourgeois was made leader of the work in Gaozhantuan district, “he obtained remarkable results. In six years he tripled the number of Christians and new converts, and founded several stations despite the many obstacles which the Protestants put in his way.”[1]

Auguste Jean Louis Marie le Guevel was born at Saint Patern in Vannes, France, on March 21, 1875. After leaving high school he worked as a mechanic in the French Navy. He then had a change of heart and joined the Jesuit school in Poitiers, followed by the seminary of the Missions Etrangères de Paris in 1895. He set sail for China on July 26, 1899, not knowing that within a year he would be in heaven. Joining the mission of Southern Manchuria, Guevel was still learning Chinese when the flash of a sword ended his life.

When the Boxer violence spilled into the southern part of Manchuria in July 1900, the missionaries received news that the Boxers were coming to kill them on July 12th. The Chinese believers pleaded with the missionaries to escape for their lives. Bourgeois, Guevel and a number of local Christians took refuge inside an old tower near Jinxi. Unbeknown to the escapees, an informant followed them and revealed their hiding place to the Boxers. On July 14th the Boxers surrounded the tower with approximately 500 armed men. All afternoon they attacked, but the missionaries managed to hold them off until sundown. The battle resumed the next morning. Finally, at about noon on July 15, 1900, the mob broke into the tower and swiftly beheaded Louis Bourgeois and Auguste le Guevel. The heads of the missionaries were taken to Ningyuan (now Xingchang) and hung on the city walls.

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