1885 - François Bois

March 29, 1885

Luojiang, Sichuan

François Bois was a native of Moye, near the French town of Savoy. Born on December 7, 1845, he felt compelled to join the Missions Etrangères de Paris to prepare for a life of missionary service. Bois entered the seminary as a 15-year-old in 1861, and after graduating he spent some time serving in his local community before departing for Sichuan Province, China, in 1869.

Making his way across China to the small town of Luojiang in central Sichuan, Bois commenced language study and within a few years his fellow missionaries claimed he was able to speak Chinese as fluently as his mother tongue. Bois primarily spent his time running the Catholic schools of the mission, and in preaching the gospel to those who had never heard it. He especially loved helping the poor, travelling around the countryside providing clothing, food, and sometimes money to help alleviate their struggles. For several years Bois was appointed leader of the work in three counties: Zhongjiang, Deyang, and Shifang.

At Christmas, 1884, François Bois went to Zhongjiang, where a female church member had died and was about to be buried. Bois hoped to make the funeral service open to the public so that non-Christians might hear the gospel. The night before the funeral, however, at

“around eleven o’clock, suddenly the home of the deceased woman was surrounded by a mob of a few hundred young ruffians. Instantly the doors and windows were smashed in, and the furniture and ornaments of the house, along with clothes and other items, were plundered. The mob had come for the life of the missionary. They searched everywhere for Bois, but the Christians had opened a passage out of the back of the property, so that the Frenchman could escape.”[1]

Bois ran through the woods, over hills and through streams. All night he escaped, until the morning light dawned to find the missionary in a state of ill-health. He had not had time to grab his coat when the mob attacked the home, and the exertion of running through the freezing winter’s night had given him a deep-seated cold. Bois made his way to Chengdu and gave an account of what had happened. By then the missionary had a deep, uncontrollable cough. After fifteen days he returned to his home and continued his work, but the illness he had contracted while fleeing for his life gradually worsened. François Bois passed away after three o’clock in the afternoon of March 29, 1885. He was 39-years-old. More than a hundred local Christians heard about the priest’s death. They wept many tears, saying Bois was a good man who had given everything he had for the kingdom of God.

1. My translation of the François Bois Obituary in the Archives des Missions Etrangères de Paris, China Biographies and Obituaries, 1800-1899.