Saint Jean-Charles Cornay

Jean-Charles Cornay was a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society who was martyred in Vietnam. He was executed in Ha Tay, Tonkin, now Vietnam, during the persecutions of Emperor Minh Mạng. Cornay was beatified on 27 May 1900, and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 19 June 1988. A town in France still carries his name. He was born in Loudun, Vienne, France, the third child of Jean-Baptiste Cornay (born 1777) and Françoise Mayaud (1780–1857); he had one brother, Eugène (1817–1893), and three sisters: Élisabeth (1804–1871), Olympe (1806–1888), and Louise (1821–1890). Their parents brought them up as good Catholics. Jean-Charles was baptized on 3 March 1809 in the Church of Saint-Pierre-du-Marché in Loudun. His godparents were Henri Mayaud and Thérèse Cornay, his aunt. Cornay studied first at the school Saint-Louis in Saumur, then in the Jesuit minor seminary in Montmorillon, after which he studied at the major seminary of Poitiers. He was known as a normal student, humble and with a gentle disposition. At Poitiers, Cornay received the tonsure on 1 June 1828 and Minor Orders on 14 June 1829. He was installed as a sub-deacon on 6 June 1830 in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul of Poitiers. After he completed his theological studies, Corday left Poitiers to enter the seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society on 13 October 1830. His missionary vocation was met with reluctance and misunderstanding on the part of his parents. This his first struggle to be faithful to God's call put him in opposition to the wishes of his parents, while maintaining his filial love. To his mother he said: "Just let me go to Paris, I will have at least three years there with every opportunity to examine my vocation, and all the means of preparing for it if it is authentic". But his stay at the Foreign Missions Seminary in Paris was brief, due to periods of insecurity following the July Revolution.