[2] He fought against anti-Catholic religious persecution in independent Tibet and was ambushed and murdered by Tibetan Buddhist monks of the Karma Kagyu sect from the Karma Gon Monastery while he travelled to Lhasa disguised as a pilgrim to appeal directly to the Dalai Lama for religious toleration to be granted to the Catholic Church in Tibet.

[3] He was beatified on 16 May 1993 after Pope John Paul II confirmed that the late priest had been killed "in odium fidei" ('out of hatred of the faith').

In his free time he took friends to the chapel where he would read them passages from the works of Francis de Sales and Thérèse of Lisieux's journal [fr].

[5] The path to the priesthood was now open for him and he travelled for over two weeks to Hanoi in Vietnam where he received ordination on 24 April 1938 from Bishop François Chaize; he wrote to his parents: "Your son is a priest!".

In March 1945 saw him appointed as the parish priest of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church at Yerkalo in southeast Tibet.

[5] He decided that he would travel to Lhasa to seek an audience with the latter to ask him for an edict of tolerance that would protect the regional Christians.

[5] On 10 July 1949 he joined a caravan of merchants and undertook the trip that would last two months and he shaved his beard and put on a Tibetan dress to avoid detection though was recognized during a brief stop.

[5] Four armed lamas burst from the bush in the Tothong forest which prompted the priest to speak with them: "Don't shoot!

The dossier – known as the Positio – was submitted to Rome in 1990 for assessment which allowed for theologians to meet on 28 February 1992 to approve the cause while the cardinal and bishop members followed suit on 16 June 1992.