Feb 18, 2017

β›ͺ Saint John Peter NΓ©el - Martyr

Saint John Peter NΓ©el,
Pray for us !
β›ͺ Saint of the Day : February 18

β›ͺ Other Names :
β€’ John NΓ©el β€’ John Peter NΓ©el

β›ͺ Born :
18 October 1832 in Soleymieux, 
Sainte-Catherine-sur-Riviere, France

β›ͺ Died :
Dragged by his hair by a horse, then beheaded at Kuy-tsheu (Kai-chou), China on 18 February 1862

β›ͺ Canonized :
1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II

Jean-Pierre NΓ©el, born in 1832 in Sainte-Catherine-sur-Riverie, diocese of Lyon, was received in the Society of the missions  and left for Kong-chou, in China, on August 21, 1858. He had been working for some time on this mission when, in December 1861, Bishop Faurie sent him to visit a family of Kia-cha-loung who had been prepared for baptism by the catechists. Arrived January 5 at the designated place, Father NΓ©el found new families ready to convert and many women who wanted to know our holy religion. There were soon fifty or so neophytes; but the local authorities became angry and threatened to arrest them. On Sunday, February 16, the missionary wrote to his bishop: "I had to set off tomorrow for the capital, but now the demon comes to disturb my little station; I stay at the station to support my neophytes, the oldest, Jean Tchang, my host,

On Tuesday the 18th, around 4 pm, satellites and national guards, commanded by mandarins on horseback and in palanquin, surrounded the house unexpectedly, arrested several catechists, entered the room where the missionary He shut himself up, took away all the valuables, tied up Father Neel, and tied him by the hair to the tail of a horse, and dragged him to the neighboring town of Kaychow.

They arrived at the Praetorium, where the Mandarin, sitting on his tribunal, questioned the missionary and his three companions. He tried in vain to have them apostatized and, being unable to succeed, he pronounced this brief sentence "I discovered a conspiracy before it burst and I punished the authors with death." He ordered at the same time to strip the victims, that the executioners drove out of the city after having tied their hands behind their backs. At the signal given, they dropped the heads of the four victims. At the moment when the head of Father NΓ©el rolled on the ground, it is said that a luminous cloud quickly descended from the sky, remained a few moments motionless above his body, then fainted. The crowd of pagan witnesses of the spectacle was frightened and the executioner more than the others.

The Mandarin had ordered the bodies of the four victims to be abandoned without burial to be devoured by wolves and leopards. The heads were suspended at the top of the ramparts. The bishop managed to collect and preserve these precious remains.

Jean-Pierre NΓ©el was beatified with other martyrs by Pius X, May 2, 1909.

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