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Paris: March 15, 1851 to April 30, 1852

Aboard ship to Hong-Kong, May 5, 1852 to January 10, 1853

The seminary of the French Foreign Missions in Paris has been called "The Polytechnic Institute of Martyrs" because it has produced so many martyrs for the Faith, in Indochina and China. Directed by veterans of years in the French missions, the seminary would evaluate Father Chapdelaine for his zeal, devotion and stamina to withstand the rigors of missionary life. The year he spent in Paris was not unlike his seminary years at Coutances, and his voluminous correspondence gives us a rare picture of Paris. "If it's true to say that Paris is the center of dissoluteness, it is also the home of much virtue," he would write to the Carmelite nun who taught in Boucey. On March 29, 1852, Father Chapdelaine met with his director. For a long time after, he knelt at the altar, lost in prayer, then wrote a letter to his mother.
 Father Chapdelaine at age 37
Picture taken in Boucey, 1851
"... I am being sent to China. You must make the sacrifice for God and He will reward you in eternity. You shall appear before Him in confidence, at your death, remembering your generosity, for His greatest glory, in sacrificing what is dearest to you. As a sign of your consent, please sign the letter you will send me as soon as possible, and as a sign of your forgiveness for all the sorrow I have caused you, and as sign of your blessing, please add a cross after your name." He then wrote to his brother, Nicolas. "I thank God for the wonderful family He has given me, and for the conduct of all its members.... It has been my greatest happiness on earth to have had such a honorable family." Still, he made a final trip to Normandy, meeting his brother, Nicolas, and sister-in-law, Marie, in Caen on April 22, to set conditions for Masses to be said for his father and mother, for himself and for all family members. On April 29, the imposing departure ceremony was held in Paris, first at the chapel of Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, then in the church itself, that once had as organist the celebrated Gounod. The next day, accompanied by five other missionaries, Father Chapdelaine left Paris. Being the oldest, he was given charge of the group and and control of its purse.

Signature of the Saint, on December 9, 1847
After a few days in Brussels, the six apostles boarded the Dutch ship, Henri-Joseph, at Anvers on May 5, 1852. Because of many storms, it took fourteen days to leave the English Channel. The voyagers would be housed in cabins six feet long by four feet wide, while suffering of seasickness. After passing the Canary Islands, the ship's captain was forced to head west, to Pernambuco, Brazil, to catch the northwest winds that would bring them to South Africa.

They passed the equator on June 23, feeling now the tropical heat that transformed their cabins into ovens. On July 18th, they were back in winter at the Cape of Good Hope. But contrary winds forced them to head towards Australia. Then a more favorable wind brought them towards Java on August 25. They had not seen land since June 6. On September 5, they landed at Singapour and bid goodbye to their faithful ship and crew, setting foot on dry land for the first time in four months. While in Singapour, Father Chapdelaine visited with Father Mauduit, one of his fellow students at Mortain and the seminary of Coutances. There he learned of the death of his cousin, Father Valentin Gassot, his best friend and confidante in Mortain, also a missionary priest, who had been arrested in Tonkin (Vietnam) but who died of pestilence in Cam-truong in 1851 at the age of 29. Just as his sister, Victoria, had died on the eve of his leaving Normandy, so also his best friend and cousin would die as he reached the door to the Chinese Empire. On October 15, a Portuguese vessel offered them passage north towards Hong-Kong. Being monsoon season, the ship was forced to return to Borneo then head towards the Philippines, a voyage filled with storms and hurricanes.

On Christmas Day, 1852, the ship anchored in the harbor of Macao. Just a few miles to the south, in this same month but exactly 300 years earlier, on the island of San-Choan, Saint Francis-Xavier surrendered his apostolic soul to God. The next morning, the missionaries saw two ships flying the colors of France enter the harbor, and they cried out in unison, Vive la France! Shortly the captain of the Cassini sent a messenger to invite the missionaries aboard the French ship. Once on board, young Lieutenant Alexis Clerc whispered in Father Chapdelaine's ear, "If you'd like to say Mass, I would be delighted to serve." In 1854, Lt. Alexis Clerc entered the Society of Jesus. As a Jesuit Father or Black Robe caring for the sick and wounded victims of war, he was taken hostage during the Franco-Prussian war to La Roquette, where he was martyred May 21, 1871. His cause has been introduced in Rome. After visiting the other French ship, the Capricieuse, our missionaries then visited Macao and its former glory, the now nearly abandoned convents of the Franciscans, the Dominicans and others, with only the front of a richly sculpted Jesuit church standing as a solitary souvenir of the wonderful work of the Society of Jesus. When they received the call from the Portuguese captain, they immediately rejoined their ship and set sail for Hong-Kong, only sixty kilometers away in the estuary of the Canton River, but a dangerous voyage nevertheless, the area being infested with naval pirates. It took them twelve hours to reach Hong-Kong, the door to the Celestial Empire.
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