Missionaries of Africa, Jinja

Father Lourdel, baptised Siméon, was originally from the diocese of Arras in the north of France. He was born on the 20th December 1853 in the village of Dury (Pas-de-Calais) into a well-to-do and very Catholic farming family; one of his brothers would become a Carthusian. After his primary schooling at the 'Séminaire des Saints Anges' at Arras, he continued his secondary studies at the junior seminary of the same town. Expelled for lack of discipline, he completed his studies at Saint Bertin College at Saint Omer. In his youth, he read the life of Father Vénard (1829-1860), who died a martyr at Tonkin (Indochina). It awakened in him the desire to become a missionary, a desire that he would later share with his friends at Saint Bertin College, Léonce Bridoux (1852-1890) and Anatole Toulotte (1852-1907). The three friends would enter the Society of Missionaries of Africa after a meeting in 1873 with Father Charmetant (1844-1921), a Missionary of Africa sent to France to l...