One hundred years ago, the first Bethlehem Missionaries (SMB) were sent to China.
After its foundation in 1921, which was accompanied by many difficulties, the Bethlehem Missionary Society (SMB) had the opportunity to serve the mission of the Church. Cardinal Wilhelmus Marinus van Rossum, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, expressed his primary concern in a letter to SMB Superior General Pietro Bondolfi: namely, “Finding the missionaries so cruelly lacking for China.”
Chaochow, the first Mass celebrated in prison. SMB missionary Leo Herrmann (standing in the center) distributes communion.
In late September 1924, the first three SMB missionaries departed for China: Paul Hugentobler, Eugen Imhof, and Gustav Schnetzler, joined a year later by Franz Fröhling, the fourth missionary.
The missionaries Paul Hugentobler and Anton Jörg SMB in the mountains of northern China.
They studied the Chinese language at the regional house of the Steyler missionaries, who were engaged in work in the Apostolic Vicariate of South Shandong. This was followed by pastoral training in various mission stations.
In 1926, the SMB was assigned to work in the province of Heilongjiang, with the two mission stations of Qiqihar and Changfatun as their area of activity. This region, twelve times the size of Switzerland, was a fertile agricultural area. In 1930, the population of the sparsely populated Heilongjiang province was estimated to be around three million people.
View of the Church of Tientsin in Tsitsikar (Qiqihar), dedicated to Our Lady of Victory.
Two of the first four missionaries to China died young: Franz Fröhling, at the age of 36 in 1933 from scarlet fever, and Eugen Imhof, at the age of 35 in 1934, in a railway accident.
Tsitsikar (Qiqihar) Mission in China: Derailed and burned train carriage. It is likely that Eugen Imhof died in a similar carriage in 1934.
This text is a translation of the original article in German published on the website www.imbethlehem.ch.
Read our previous articles in the Mission section on the history of the SMB in China:
- Manchuria: Context and Journey of the First Expedition
- The First Missionaries and the Stations
- Medical Care in Manchuria
- Education in Manchuria
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