Background
He was born at Reiningen, near Mülhausen (Mulhouse) in Alsace (in what is now France), and died at Shang-ho, in Jiangnan.
He was born at Reiningen, near Mülhausen (Mulhouse) in Alsace (in what is now France), and died at Shang-ho, in Jiangnan.
Here the Kangxi Emperor invited him by personal request to collaborate in the great map and chart work in which the Jesuits, acting under imperial instructions, were then engaged. He laboured with Anne-Marie de Mailla and Jean-Baptiste Régis on the mapping of the provinces of Henan, Jiangnan, Zhejiang and Fujian (cfr Du Halde, "Description de la Chine", The Hague, 1736, I, pref, xliii. And Richthofen, "China," Berlin, 1877, I, 682).
He was twice placed at the head of the mission as canonical visitor.
He is especially remembered for his introduction and ardent fostering among the neophytes of the devotion to the Sacred Heart (cf Nilles, "De ratione festorum Steamship Cordis", 5th ed, I, 323. Letierze, "Etude sur le Sacré Coeur", Paris, 1891, II, 104).