The Goette Brothers: Catholic America’s First China Missionaries

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Maryknoll, the first American religious order founded for overseas mission work. But until a few years earlier, the United States itself was officially classified as mission territory. For most of the 1800’s, the Church worked on establishing itself here, meaning it had little time or money for overseas work.

But there were exceptions. During the early 1800’s, a few priests and religious made their way to Africa and India, but not China. By 1850, nearly a hundred American Protestant missionaries worked there, but no Catholic. Not for another thirty years would they arrive.

Normally, the Italian Franciscans were sent to China, but in the early 1880’s they were unable to do so. So the Franciscan headquarters in Rome sent out a plea to other countries for missionaries. In the United States, three German-born Franciscans, the Goette brothers, responded to the call. They became Catholic America’s first China missioners.

The first to go was Remy Goette (1856-1920). Born Joseph in Paderborn, Germany, he joined the Franciscans in October 1873. At the time, the newly formed German government under Otto von Bismarck instituted a crackdown on the Church. Known as the Kulturkampf, the purpose was to bring it under closer control. As a result, many religious left the country.

In 1875, Remy, along with his brothers Athanasius and John Capistran, came to America to continue their training. (The latter two joined the Franciscans a year after Remy.) In 1881, a year after his ordination, Remy was sent to China. For thirty-nine years he served in central China’s Hubei province, and later at Shantung on the eastern coast.

Athanasius (1857-1908) arrived in 1882. Born William, he was ordained in 1881. He served in Shaanxi in central China. (It took nearly a year to get there.) In 1905, he was named Vicar Apostolic (a bishop in charge of a territory where no diocese has yet been erected) of northern Shaanxi. He died while nursing the sick during a typhoid epidemic, the first American Catholic Bishop in China.

John Capistran (1859-1919), born Henry, was ordained in 1882 and went to China two years later. He worked in the Hunan province in southern China as a seminary professor and chaplain to an orphanage. As hostility toward foreigners heated up toward the end of the century, he was attacked and nearly killed. He died in Shaanxi, however, many years later.

By 1930, there were over a thousand American Catholic missionaries serving in China, forty being Franciscans. This year, as we celebrate Maryknoll’s centennial, the opportunity also presents itself to commemorate Catholic America’s first missionaries to China, the brothers Goette.

NOTE
The first American-born Catholic missionary to China was also a Franciscan, Father Francis X. Engbring (1857-1895). Born Henry in Cincinnati, he joined the Franciscans in 1874 and was ordained in 1880. He taught theology to seminarians, but his real desire was to serve in the missions. In 1888, his request was finally approved, and he spent the last seven years of his life ministering in China. ra


The very first Catholic missionary of any kind in China was a Franciscan, John of Montecorvino (1246-1328). He became an Archbishop and established the Church in China, but the mission didn’t last long after his own death. It would be a long time before missionaries made their way to China again, the Jesuits some three centuries later.


A note on names: in certain male religious communities (and nearly all female), a name change was meant to indicate that a deeper change had taken place in the person’s life. This practice still continues in some communities, but is not as widespread as it was in the pre-conciliar era.