CHINA

New Zealand Tablet, 27 April 1911, Page 783

CHINA

A HERO OF THE FAITH. The age of heroes (says the Catholic Weekly) is not yet ; past. We are reminded that it still preserves its glorious record by the news that comes to us from plague-stricken Manchuria of the death of one of China’s most devoted Catholic missionaries, Father P. Bourles, who has just died at Harbin, the victim of his own self-sacrificing efforts for the bodies and souls of those he sought to save. The deceased priest, who had labored successfully all through the Boxer riots, went to Harbin seven or eight months ago, and quickly set himself to fight the plague in the Chinese city of Foo-kia-ten. He opened a hospital where sufferers were received, regardless of creed distinction, and though his voluntary helpers all in turn succumbed to the pestilence, ho had the happiness of baptising 200 pagan patients who were sheltered in its walls. Monsignor Lalanger, Vicar-Apostolic in Manchuria, himself visited Father Bourles’ missionary station, and testifies warmly, in a letter recently published in the Osservatore liomano, to the zeal and charity of the priest who died full of joy at having been able to spend his last days in the service of the plague victims. Such a life needs no comment; it speaks more eloquently than words.