LECORNU Paul-Adrien Father

Foreign Missions of Paris

Born March 26, 1856 in Lisieux, died January 12, 1922 in Hanoi.

His family was friends of the Guérins. After brilliant engineering studies, and the death of his parents, he asked to go to Tonkin where we fought. Having rediscovered his faith, he made friends with the Fathers of the Foreign Missions and entered their home on March 8, 1889, not without heartbreak at leaving the army.

On the occasion of a vacation in Lisieux, in 1890, he responded to Thérèse's taking-of-the-veil mass on September 24. Ordained a priest on February 23, 1893, he came to celebrate one of his first masses at Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Lisieux on March 12, an opportunity to meet up with friends at the Guérins.

He returned to Tonkin on the following April 26 as a priest and missionary. He participated in the construction of the Carmel of Hanoi in 1895. For 20 years he remained in close contact with this new Carmel, giving instructions there twice a month on the Eucharist. This former soldier also had an extraordinary influence on the French soldiers residing in Tonkin.