Reviewed in Brief

Martyr in Tibet, by Robert Loup. Translated by Charles Davenport. 238 pp. New York: David McKay Company. $3.75

In 1936, young Maurice Tornay had just taken his vows as a St. Bernard monk and was leaving for missionary work in China. “I want to burn myself out in the service of God,” he said, “I am not coming back.” Ordained to the priesthood in Hanoi, he was sent to the remote village of Yerkalo on the Tibetan border. “My parish,” he wrote home, “is bigger than France, but it has only 200 parishioners.” For the next ten years he held mass and fought with lamas, local bandits and encroaching Chinese Reds, all of whom wanted to get rid of him. In 1946 he was driven out and his church sacked. To come back meant almost certain death, but Father Yerkalo refused to do anything less. In August 1949, his returning caravan was ambushed. He was last seen giving absolution to his dying servant. His mutilated body was found, several days later, along a mountain road.

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Martyr in Tibet, by Robert Loup. Translated by Charles Davenport. 238 pp. New York: David McKay Company. $3.75

In 1936, young Maurice Tornay had just taken his vows as a St. Bernard monk and was leaving for missionary work in China. “I want to burn myself out in the service of God,” he said, “I am not coming back.” Ordained to the priesthood in Hanoi, he was sent to the remote village of Yerkalo on the Tibetan border. “My parish,” he wrote home, “is bigger than France, but it has only 200 parishioners.” For the next ten years he held mass and fought with lamas, local bandits and encroaching Chinese Reds, all of whom wanted to get rid of him. In 1946 he was driven out and his church sacked. To come back meant almost certain death, but Father Yerkalo refused to do anything less. In August 1949, his returning caravan was ambushed. He was last seen giving absolution to his dying servant. His mutilated body was found, several days later, along a mountain road.