HIS YEARS IN TIBET
On 22.2.1936, he embarked from Marseilles to join his missionary brothers in Yunnan, having obtained permission from his superiors to commit himself to the Tibetan Mission.
He arrived in Weisi on 8 May 1936. There, he brilliantly completed his theological studies in February 1938, while learning Chinese and Tibetan. He was ordained a priest on 24 April 1938 in Hanoi and celebrated his first mass in Siao-Weisi.
From 1936 to 1939, he learned Chinese and Tibetan. From March to June 1945, he perfected his Tibetan with Father Goré of the Foreign Missions in Paris. From 1938 to 1945, he directed the school and the minor seminary of Houa-lo-pa, located near Weisi on 3.7.1938.
In June 1945, he was called to replace Father Burdin, parish priest of Yerkalo, who died of thyphoid at the age of 36. From November 1945 to January 1946, he refused the order given by the lamas to leave the country.
On 26 June 1946, under threat, he left the parish to stay first in Pamé and then in Atentze. There he secretly prepared his trip to Lhasa to plead his case to the Dalai Lama as a last resort. He had received more promises than actual help from the Apostolic Nuncio, the Swiss and French ambassadors based in Nanjing.
On 10.7.1949, with the agreement of his superiors and the advice of the Nuncio, he left Atentze with some servants for Lhasa, joining a friendly caravan. On the seventeenth of 34 planned stops, he was arrested on 27 July 1949 and taken back to the border at the Choula Pass. At the edge of the nearby forest, four lamas killed him and his servant Doci on 11.8.1949. Two Chinese servants manage to escape.
On 17 August he was buried in the garden of the Atentze residence.
At present his body lies in Yerkalo.
