Friday, February 6, 2026

It is the 6th of February 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

We end the week with a real whizz-banger of a show- a story about a 19th-century French Catholic missionary whose death not only sparked the Second Opium War (1856-1860), but was canonized a Saint in 2000 and became the subject of a very, very curious museum in China today.

 

He was Auguste Chapdelaine, born on the 6th of February in 1814 near La Rochelle on the French West Coast. He was ordained in 1843 and, in 1851, joined the Institute of Foreign Missions in Paris. In 1852, he left for the South of China to serve as a missionary.

 

But it was in 1850, two years prior, also in the South of China, that the Taiping Rebellion had begun. The Taiping Rebellion is THE great catastrophe in 19th-century China. The demise of the church in China, the end of the Qing dynasty, the Chinese Civil War, and Mao all stem from this. In brief, a disillusioned Chinese civil servant had hallucinations and believed that he was the brother of Jesus. He formed a quasi-Christian cult that opposed the Emperor and emphasized the communal holding of all things. The group grew to over a million, attempted to take Beijing, and when the 14-year debacle was over, some 20 million were dead.

 

So this is the context of Chapdelaine coming to China as a missionary. Not only had this rebellion begun, but the First Opium War had just ended, further alienating many of the Chinese from Westerners. So, to be a Western Christian missionary was more dangerous than it had been. They were suspected of being agents of foreign imperialism, which they sometimes were. And so the missionaries were limited to certain regions on the Chinese coast. Chapedelaine didn’t listen to the warnings to remain on the coast and made his way inland. In 1856, he was arrested and tortured. The details are gory- he was placed in a cage and placed on display in the village until he died from his injuries.

 

The story became the equivalent of tabloid fodder back in France- “the evil Chinese murdering the innocent missionary,” and it gave Napoleon III cover for joining the British in what would be called the “Second Opium War”. The unequal treaties forced on the Chinese in the wake of these wars would be a major factor in the turmoil to come, which would include the rise of Communism under Mao (who would use the communal language of the Taiping Rebellion but ban all forms of Christianity).

 

And so for the Chinese, the connection between missionaries and their country’s imperial designs can be hard to separate. Characters like Chapedelaine (and especially him, as his story is so linked to the Second Opium War) became villainized by the Chinese Communists. In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Chaplain and would also canonize some 100 others. On the day of the event, the Chinese Embassy derided the event as “cutting open the historical scars” and that these missionaries were perpetrators of the historic crimes.

 

The communist party had spent considerable time developing, well, the opposite of hagiography, not “writing about saints” but making many of them almost comically evil devils. And this isn’t in the ancient past. It was 10 years ago, in 2016, that Chapdelaine was back in the news. A new museum was made in the village where he was killed. It is a museum “celebrating the patriotism” of the men who killed the Catholic missionary. With the opening of the museum, the Chinese government sponsored a poetry contest for odes to the judge who condemned Chapdelaine. Upon arriving at the museum, the visitor will first see a six-meter prize cage- a replica of the one used to kill the priest, hanging out front. The propaganda against him has made him a bandit and a womanizer who brought shame to China.

 

There is today in that region a Catholic Church; however, the few hundred who are today allowed to worship remember the much maligned saint behind the Second Opium War and a curious nearby museum on the day he was born- Auguste Chapdelaine was born on this, the 6th of February in 1814.

 

 

 

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and James on wisdom:

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 6th of February 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows it’s Rick Astley’s birthday… beware of any links he sends you… He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who still can’t believe it’s those two teams in the Super Bowl… yuck. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.