BLESSED JOHN GASPARD CRATZ

Bl. John Gaspard Cratz

Feastday: January 12
Died: 1737


Jesuit martyr in China. He was born at Duren, near Cologne, Germany, and entered the Jesuits in Macao in 1730. He went to China and was arrested in Tonkin in 1736. The next year, with Blessed Bartholomew Alvarez and others, he was put to death after horrible abuses and tortures.




Blesseds John Gaspard Cratz
 Emmanuel d'Abreu
 Bartholomew Alvarez and
 Vincent da Cunha, SJ MM (AC)
 Died in Tonkin (Vietnam) in 1737. These Jesuits were sent to the Kingdom of Tonkin together as missionaries in 1736. Together they were arrested in March 1736 and were beheaded there for the faith the following year. Bartholomew Alvarez (born near Braganza, Portugal) joined the Jesuits at Coimbra in 1723. Emmanuel d'Abreu (born at Arouca, Portugal, in 1708) entered the order in 1724. John Gaspard Cratz (born at Duren near Cologne, Germany), entered the Jesuits at Macao in 1730. Vincent da Cunha was another Jesuit cleric sent from Portugal to evangelize Tonkin. They were not there long before they were martyred (Benedictines).