Adolphe Lechaptois
|
Adolphe Lechaptois M. Afr. |
|
|---|---|
| Vicar Apostolic of Tanganyika | |
 |
|
| Installed | 19 June 1891 |
| Term ended | 30 November 1917 |
| Predecessor | Léonce Bridoux |
| Successor | Joseph-Marie Birraux |
| Other posts | Titular Bishop of Utica (19 June 1891 – 30 November 1917) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 6 October 1878 |
| Consecration | 20 May 1894 by Archbishop Prosper Auguste Dusserre |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 June 1852 Cuillé, France |
| Died | 30 November 1917 (aged 65) Karema, Tanganyika |
| Nationality | French |
Adolphe Lechaptois (8 June 1852 – 30 November 1917) was a priest of the White Fathers missionary society who was Vicar Apostolic of Tangyanika from 1891 until his death in 1917, in what is now Tanzania. He took responsibility for the vicariate at a time of great danger, when the missions were insecure havens for people fleeing slavers. As the country settled down, he oversaw expansion in the number of missions and schools. He was the author of a book on the ethnography of the local people that won a prize from the French Société de Géographie.
Adolphe Lechaptois was born at Cuillé, Mayenne, France on 6 June 1852. He attended the seminary of Laval. In October 1872 he joined the White Fathers (Missionary Society of Africa), and taught for two years at the junior seminary at Algiers since the newly formed society was short of staff. He began his theological studies in November 1875. He was ordained a priest of the White Fathers on 6 October 1878 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, the founder of the society. He taught at the junior seminary and was assistant to the master of novices at the society's mother house at Maison Carrée, Algeria. In 1884 he was appointed master of novices. In 1886, he was made regional superior of Kabylie, Algeria. In this position he encouraged the establishment of villages where Christian converts would settle.
Cardinal Lavigerie was concerned that the campaign to suppress slavery would cut off the missions around Lake Tanganyika from communication with the coast. He was interested in opening a new supply route from the port of Quelimane in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique via the Zambezi and Shire rivers to Lake Malawi and then on to Lake Tanganyika. At the same time, the Portuguese wanted to gain international recognition of their claim to the territory to the south and west of Lake Nyasa. In June 1889 the White Fathers signed an agreement with the crown of Portugal to set up a mission at the village of chief Mponda, at the southern end of the lake. Lechaptois was chosen to lead the mission, assisted by two other priests, two lay brothers and two African assistants. One of the lay brothers died in an accident at Zanzibar. The other missionaries reached Quelimane in September 1889, where they learned that the British were claiming jurisdiction over the region to the west and south of the lake.
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