St Chastan Monument

St Chastan Monument (7 December 2009)


The St Chastan Monument is a memorial to the only parish priest in Malaysia to ever be made a saint (not counting St Francis Xavier). The monument is in the form of a pavilion with a statue of the saint in the grounds of the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Jasques Hororé Chastan, also known in English as James Chastan, was a Roman Catholic missionary born in France. He taught at the College General in Penang from 1828-1830. At the same seminary was Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert, another Catholic priest who also taught there from 1821 to 1822.

During Father Chastan's time in Penang, he was able to convert a lot of Chinese people to the Roman Catholic faith due to his ability of speak Chinese fluently. He served at the fourth parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception from 1830 to 1833, during which time he continued to teach part time at College General.

Commemorative Monument of the Parish Priests of the Church of the Immaculate Conception (7 December 2009)


From Malaya, Father Chastan moved to China, where he did missionary work in the province of Shantung. From Shantung, he travelled to Korea. Within a year of his arrival in Korea, Father Chastan had converted 1240 believers, this in spite of his limited knowledge of Korean. During the same period, over 6,000 Koreans have embraced Christianity. By the end of the following year, the number has reached 9,000.

Working alongside Father Chastan was Father Imbert, his colleague at College General in Penang. Father Imbert was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Korea in 1836 and Titular Bishop of Capsa. Like Father Imbert, Bishop Imbert was secretly carrying out Catholic missionary work. The rate that the Koreans were converting to Christianity alarmed the Korean authorities and they began to clamp down on all "alien beliefs".

On 10 August, 1839, Bishop Imbert was arrested and tortured. To spare his converts from torture, he asked his fellow missionaries to give themselves up.

Biography of James Chastan (7 December 2009)


In September 1839, Father Chastan and his confrere Father Pierre-Philibert Maubant surrendered themselves to the Korean authorities. They were charged with the crime of propagating a "perverse religion", found guilty, and on 21 September 1839, sentenced to death by beheading at Saenamteo, Korea.

Father Imbert and Father Chastan were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1925. On 6 May, 1984, they were canonized by Pope John Paul II. Father Chastan was the only parish priest to have served in Malaysia that has been made a saint.

At the St Chastan Monument is a plaque listing all the parish priests of the Church of the Immaculate Conception from 1811 onwards. The list is shown below:

Location of St Chastan's Monument on the map

List of Monuments in Penang and Monuments in Malaysia

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