page_title: Paris Foreign Missions Society
section_title: China
hierarchical_section_title: Paris Foreign Missions Society / Nineteenth century / China
caption_attribution_description: English: Kouy-Tcheou_Mission_1876 Français&#160;: Prêtres des Missions étrangères de Paris en Chine (Kouy-Tchéou, 1876)
context_page_description: The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons dedicated to missionary work in foreign lands.
  The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris was established 1658–63. In 1659, the instructions for the establishment of the Paris Foreign Missions Society were given by Rome's Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, and marked the creation of a missionary institution that did not depend on the control of the traditional missionary and colonial powers of Spain or Portugal. In the 350 years since its foundation, the institution has sent more than 4,200 missionary priests to Asia and North America, with the mission of adapting to local customs, establishing a native clergy, and keeping close contacts with Rome.
  In the 19th century, the local persecutions of missionary priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society was often a pretext for French military intervention in Asia. In Vietnam, the persecutions were used by the French government to justify the armed interventions of Jean-Baptiste Cécille and Rigault de Genouilly.
context_section_description: Father Auguste Chapdelaine, who was preaching illegally in China, was imprisoned, tortured and killed by Chinese authorities in 1856. This event, named the "Father Chapdelaine Incident" became the pretext for the French military intervention in the Second Opium War.
  Three missionaries of the M.E.P. were canonized by Pope John-Paul II on 1 October 2000, as part of 120 Martyrs of China, including 9 Franciscans, 6 Dominicans, 7 Franciscan missionary sisters of Mary, 1 Lazarist, 1 Italian priest of the Foreign Missions of Milan, 4 Chinese priests and 83 Chinese laics:
  Bishop Gabriel-Taurin Dufresse, vicar apostolic of Sichuan, China (1815)
  Auguste Chapdelaine, Saint, martyred in China (29 February 1856)
  Jean-Pierre Néel, China (1862)
caption: The mission in the Chinese province of Guizhou, 1876.
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