Pierre-Marie-Alphonse Favier-Duperron C.M.(Chinese: 樊國樑 Pinyin:Fan Guoliang Wade-Giles: Fan Kouo-Léang) (born 22 September 1837 at Marsannay-la-Côte, France; died 4 April 1905 in Beijing) was the Catholic Lazarist Vicar Apostolic of Northern Zhili, China (now incorporating the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing) and titular bishop of Pentacomia from 13 April 1899 until his death in 1905. During the Boxer Uprising of 1900, Favier was responsible for the defence and preservation of the Beitang Cathedral (lit. "North Cathedral") in Beijing, and the protection of thousands of Chinese Catholic Christians. In the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising, Favier was accused of looting."Mgr. Favier Denies Charges" The New York Times (10 February 1901); accessed 9 January 2009."Death of Bishop Favier; Head of Catholics in China – Unjustly Accused of Looting in 1900." New York Times (5 April 1905):9. Retrieved 8 January 2009"Bishop Favier Denies Charges of Looting", The New York Times (1 December 1901);. Retrieved 9 January 1901.
Biographical details
Pierre-Marie Alphonse Favier-Duperron () was born on 22 September 1837 at Marsannay-la-Côte (Côte-d'Or), France.Witek, Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity, http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/f/favier-pierremarie-alphonse.php . Retrieved 9 January 2009.
Education Before entering the ministry of the Catholic Church, Favier trained as an architect. He was able to use that training to design and supervise the construction of Beijing's Beitang Cathedral.James Anthony Walsh, Observations in the Orient: The Account of a Journey to Catholic Mission Fields in Japan, Korea, Manchuria, China, Indo-China, and the Philippines (Ossining, New York: Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, 1919; READ BOOKS, 2008):118;. Retrieved 10 January 2009. After Favier studied literature at the seminary at Plombières, he transferred to the Dijon seminary where he studied philosophy and a year of theology.
Religious preparation Favier entered the Catholic Church's Congregation of Mission (known as the Lazarists or Vincentians) in Paris on 5 October 1858. On 6 October 1860 he indicated his desire to be a priest. At the General Assembly of the Congregation of Mission held from 27 July to 4 August 1861, Monsigneur Joseph-Martial Mouly (孟振生), C.M. (born 2 August 1807; died 4 December 1868), the then Vicar Apostolic of China's North Zhili province, which was centred on Beijing,Jean-Paulo Wiest, "Joseph Martial Mouly" Dictionary of Chinese Christian Biography; http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/m/mouly-joseph-martial.php . Retrieved 10 January 2009. attended and spoke of the new possibilities of evangelisation in China after the Convention of Peking of 1860. Mgr Mouly wanted missionaries and sisters to accompany him on his return to China.Bernard Scott, "Pére Jean Pierre Armand David CM ", 59;. Retrieved 14 January 2000. Favier was one of those who responded affirmatively to Mouly's invitation.
Alphonse Favier was ordained a priest on 19 October 1861 in the Chapelle Notre Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse by bishop Mouly.
Missionary service in China (1862–1905)
Missionary priest 1862–1897 Alphonse Favier sailed from Toulon, France on 20 February 1862 on the Descartes, travelling with Bishop Mouly, and three other missionaries (including Jean Pierre Armand David C.M. (1826–1900)), two lay-brothers, and fourteen Daughters of Charity. After sailing east across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, Egypt, the missionary band travelled overland to the Red Sea, where they embarked on the Japon for their journey to China. After passing the Gulf of Aden and entering the Indian Ocean, their little ship sprang a leak and was beached (probably on the northern coastal tip of Somalia). After their ship was repaired, they continued to China. Favier arrived in Peking (now Beijing), China on 5 July 1862.
In China Favier had an active pastoral ministry. At the time of the Tianjin Massacre of 21 June 1870, Favier was director of the Lazarist work in the district of Xuanhuafu, about 180 kilometres northwest of Beijing. In the absence of the Vicar Apostolic, Favier negotiated with the Chinese authorities to ensure the re-building of the damaged church property.http://ricci.rt.usfca.edu/institution/view.aspx?institutionID=431 . Retrieved 11 January 2009.
Later Favier became the principal administrative assistant in Beijing, and in that capacity was able to successfully facilitate the introduction of the Trappists into China in April 1883, and the Marist Brothers into China in +1891.http://ricci.rt.usfca.edu/institution/view.aspx?institutionID=372 . Retrieved 11 January 2009.
Favier was also appointed architect and supervisor of construction for the new Beitang Cathedral in Beijing, which was constructed for $160,000 at the Emperor's expense and completed by 1887.Doyle, Catholic World (1901):552.http://famvin.org/fr/missions/FAVIER/A_siegeJOURNAL.htm . Retrieved 10 January 2009.
After meeting Favier in 1895, Sir Henry Norman (1854–1939) described Favier as "the finest specimen of a priest I have ever met, a beau sabreur of the Church, who wears Chinese dress and his hair in a queue, who speaks Chinese perfectly, who has even been decorated with a sapphire button by the Emperor."Henry Norman, The Peoples and Politics of the Far East: Travels and Studies in the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese Colonies, Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Malaya (T.F. Unwin, 1895; Adamant Media Corporation, 2001):279.
In 1897 Favier wrote Peking, histoire et description, a general history of Peking that included reproductions of photographs of the city by artists such as Thomas Child, which was subsequently revised after the Boxer Uprising.Peking, histoire et description. Peking: Impr. Lazaristes, 1897. reed. 1898; Lille: Societe de Saint Augustin, 1900; Lille: Desclee de Brouwer, 1902.
Titular Bishop of Pentacomia (1897) On 12 November 1897, Favier was appointed Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Northern Zhili, China, as well as the Titular Bishop of Pentacomia. As a result of "direct representations made by the Emperor" to the Holy See,"Catholic Bishop in China", The New York Times (21 February 1898):7;. Retrieved 8 January 2009. Favier was consecrated Titular Bishop of Pentacomia, in Beijing on 20 February 1898 by Bishop Jules Bruguière C.M. (12 August 1851 – 19 October 1906), the then Vicar Apostolic of Southwestern Zhili.
Favier was responsible for negotiating the imperial decree of 15 March 1899 that placed Catholic bishops on a par with the Chinese governors and governors general, an unpopular move with a number of Catholics, Protestants and the Chinese. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia: An important imperial decree of 15 March 1899, established on an official basis the relations between the Catholic clergy and the local authorities of China; the bishops were placed on an equal footing with the viceroys and the governors, the vicars—general ranked with the treasurers, provincial judges and Tao—t'ai, priests with prefects. This decree was signed at the suggestion of Bishop Favier of Peking, but its wisdom has been much disputed. As a consequence, the Qing Government granted him the official uniform of the second rank as an indication of courteous reception."China's Tragic Years, 1900-1901, Through a Foreign Lense", http://www.china.org.cn/e-8guo/2/3.htm. Retrieved 9 January 2009. The second rank wore "a red coral button and robe embroidered with a golden pheasant; the girdle clasp of gold set in rubies".Harold L. Auman, "Mandarin Hat-Button Bells", supplement from The Bell Tower (May 1966). http://americanbell.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=432&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a . Retrieved 10 January 2009.
Vicar Apostolic of Northern Zhili (1899–1905) Upon the death of his predecessor, Bishop Jean-Baptiste-Hippolyte Sarthou, C.M. (24 April 1840 – 13 April 1899), Favier became Vicar Apostolic of Northern Zhili on 13 April 1899. In that capacity Favier played a big part in keeping the Holy See and China apart, in that he influenced the Holy See to abandon its plan to send a nuncio (apostolic delegate) to China who would exercise powers independent of the Western Powers. Favier was in favor of maintaining the status quo of the French Protectorate.Luciano Morra, S.J. "Developments in Relations Among the Vatican, China and the Catholic Church in 19th Century China", Paper presented at International Conference on the Boxer Movement and Christianity in China, Taiwan, 10–11 June 2004. In 1900, Favier wrote in an updated edition of his Peking, histoire et description: Once again we have seen the necessity of French protection of the Catholic missions as it has always been exercised and which the Church has never wanted to end. Accordingly, one will always see a consulate next to a church. The building where the French tricolor flies will always protect the Catholic cross."Pierre-Marie-Alphonse Favier, Peking, historie et description, 1900 ed., 269; quoted in Studies in Asian Mission History, 1956–1998 (BRILL, 2000):113, by Arnulf Camps. According to Camps, "China has never forgotten that Church and imperialism thus worked together."Arnulf Camps, Studies in Asian Mission History, 1956–1998 (BRILL, 2000):113.
According to John G. Birch (ca.1846–1900), who visited Favier in early 1899 in Beijing, Favier "is a delightful old gentleman, with a tall burly figure, but seemed hardly episcopal, as, clad a la chinoise, and smoking a long cheroot."Birch, Travels, 6. According to E.G. Ruoff, "Father Favier ...was a friend of Prince (sic) Jung-Lu, and was considered by many to be the best informed European on Chinese affairs."E.G. Ruoff, ed. Death Throes of a Dynasty: Letters and Diaries of Charles and Bessie Ewing, Missionaries to China (Kent State University Press, 1990):7. However, Favier argued that "one should talk with the Chinese with 'a stick in one hand and a dollar in the other' – only then would they understand everything one told them!"Quoted in China and Denmark, eds. Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard and Mads Kirkebæk (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2001):141.
Favier's warning letter of 19 May 1900 George Ernest Morrison, the correspondent for The Times, no great fan of missionaries, "was full of praise for the foresight and preparedness of Bishop Favier."Cyril Pearl, Morrison of Peking, (Angus and Robertson, 1967):123. "No one knew more about the Boxer menace than Monsignor Alphonse-Pierre Favier, Roman Catholic Bishop of Peking."Peter Thompson and Robert Macklin, The Man who Died Twice: The Life and Adventures of Morrison of Peking, (Allen & Unwin, 2004):166. John Stuart Thomson agreed: "No foreigner in China was as accurate in his prophecies of coming political and massacres as the Roman Catholic bishop of Peking, Monsieur Favir [sic.]."John Stuart Thomson, China Revolutionized (The Bobbs-Merrill company, 1913):303.
In a letter of 19 May 1900 to Stéphen Pichon, the French Minister to China, Favier reported increased persecution of Christians in Baoding (here romanized as Pao-ting-fu), including the murder of local Christians, and that he believed there was imminent danger of anti-European and anti-Christian activities by the Boxers.Peter Harrington; Alan Perry; David Chandler; and Michael Perry, Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion (Osprey Publishing, 2001):14. He indicated the Boxer uprising would spread to Beijing, and that both churches and the foreign Legations would be attacked. He requested guards to protect the Beitang cathedral (here romanized as Pe-tang).Kenneth G. Clark, "The Boxer Uprising 1899-1900", The Russo-Japanese War Research Society, http://www.russojapanesewar.com/boxers.html . Retrieved 8 January 2009.
Favier's letter read: