Dominique Lefèbvre – Wikipedia
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Dominique Lefèbvre (born the in Courtonne-la-Meurdrac and died on in Marseille) is a French missionary of XIX It is century, member of the Société des Missions Foreign de Paris, bishop of Isauropolis (of) in parts of the unbelievers , and vicar apostolic in cochinchina (current Vietnam). He is contemporary with his colleague, missionary and martyr, Théophane Vénard. His imprisonment in Cochinchina served as a pretext for the first French naval interventions in the country.
Dominique Lefèbvre studied at the Little Lisieux seminar then at the Grand Seminary in Bayeux. He then joined the foreign missions of Paris as deacon, . He is ordered priest .
Dominique Lefèbvre arrived at Tonkin in 1835 [ first ] , where he learns the language from Father Borie. Then he illegally goes to Cochinchina. At the time, there was no religious freedom in this kingdom and it was illegal for missionaries to enter the country to evangelize. However, he manages to form a small seminar in Basse-Cochinchina and stays in the province of Vinh-Long, changing home to escape persecution. He is chosen as a proviciary by M gr Cuénot in 1839, then appointed bishop In parts and sacred bishop in Go-Thi, the . In the event of death of M gr Cuénot, Rome sends a brief according to which he would be his successor.
Dominique Lefèbvre leaves Annam to return to Cochinchina where he founded the convent of the lovers of the Cross in Cai-Mong in 1844. The , he was arrested near Cai-Nhum and led to Hue. In 1845, Dominique Lefèbvre was sentenced to death. The American captain, John Percival of the USS Constitution fails in his attempts to make him release, but he succeeds in informing Admiral Cécille who obtains his release [ 2 ] , [ 3 ] .
The Vietnamese sovereign of the time, Thiệu Trị Hoangde, a sensitive intellectual and an artist in love with nature, is in fact to remain cautious about Christianity, so as not to give the French case of war , despite the repeated accusations of the scholars who accuse him of lacking in filial piety towards the manes of his ancestors. This is how the emperor left his faithful courts condemn the missionaries to death – in accordance with the law – to then release them by a direct imperial intervention, in the hope of frightening the missionaries and preventing their interventions in National Affairs. But the bishop, captured, condemned and released on several occasions, will have no respect for the magnanimity of the suzerain until the end.
Dominique Lefèbvre leaves to treat himself in Singapore in , where he learns that he is appointed by Rome Vicar Apostolic of Western Cochinchina (encompassing southern current Vietnam and Cambodia).
He embarks in To win his mission with Father Duclos and three seminarians, but they are arrested while going up the river to join Saigon. He is again imprisoned, then transferred to Hue. In 1847, Cécille sent two warships (the Glory and the Victorious ) Under the orders of the captains Lapierre and Rigault de Genouilly in Tourane to obtain the release of French missionaries and freedom of worship for Catholics converted [ 4 ] . While negotiations trample, the , French bombings trigger the Battle of Tourane between the French fleet and the Annamites ships. The victory is won the By two ships of the French navy under the command of the captain Augustin de Lapierre on the fleet of the kingdom of the Nguyễn dynasty off the city of Tourane which is now called đà Nẵng.
Four annamite corvettes are sunk and a fifth is very damaged. Annamites lose nearly 1,200 men during this battle. But the attack having taken place without the approval of Paris, the soldiers refrain from continuing on their momentum.
After a while, M gr Lefèbvre is given to the English authorities, again to Singapore. He returns to Cochinchina by the Mekong Delta to administer his vicariate in hiding, often changing places. He crowned his bishop Coadjutor Jean-Claude Miche, the . The latter was appointed Apostolic Vicar of Cambodia in 1850 which was therefore separated from the vicariate of Western Cochinchina.
When in 1858 Napoleon III’s France sent its naval expedition to Cochinchina, the persecution against the redouble converted Catholics. He manages to return to Saigon in secret. From 1859, he formed a Christianity of converts in the region of Xom-Chie, then he fixed at the end of 1860 in Saigon, which became under French administration.
He opened a small hospital there where he invites the missionary sisters of Saint -Paul de Chartres – already present in Saigon – to work there and bring Carmelites from France.
Weakened by tropical diseases, M gr Lefèbvre resigned at the end of 1864 and took the boat to go to Rome. Then he is in France, where he died shortly after his arrival at the procure of foreign missions in Marseille, the . He is buried there.
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