Théodore Wibaux (missionary)
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Théodore-Louis Wibaux (28 March 1820 – 7 October 1877) was a French Roman Catholic priest and missionary.
Biography
He was born at the Saint-Martin parish in Roubaix. Wibaux was studying law when he felt called to the priesthood. He responded immediately. He was ordained a priest on 6 June 1846 and appointed professor of rhetoric at the college in Marcq-en-Barœul. Wishing to devote himself to the distant apostolate, he entered the Paris Foreign Missions Seminary on 24 November 1857. He left on 20 February 1859 for Western Cochinchina, lived for a time in Tan-dinh (1861–1862), and was appointed provicaire in 1863. This was the day after the treaty that ended the era of bloody persecution.
At that time, it was important to train a native clergy; Bishop Lefèbvre entrusted him with this task. Wibaux built the mission seminary with his personal fortune, and gave himself entirely to its direction. He obtained excellent results.
After falling ill in 1869, he returned to France and enlisted as a military chaplain during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. Returning to Saigon in 1871, he resumed his work with the same persevering energy. Little by little, his strength was exhausted, and on 7 October 1877, he died at the seminary in Saigon. He was buried in the seminary courtyard. A small chapel has been built over his tomb.
Works
- Les Martyrs de l'Extrême-Orient ou les 94 Serviteurs de Dieu, mis à mort pour la foi en Corée, en Cochinchine, au Tonkin et en Chine (1859)
- Examens pour retraites ecclésiastiques (1886; 1899)
