But what about those who had left before? What memories did they leave behind, what image of them can we offer?

For the official Martyrs of the first half of the XIXth century, portraits have been drawn or painted from memory, as their relics, their personal belongings and correspondance were being received, with a beatification process in view. But there are no traces left, apart from a few letters, of the proto-martyrs of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, neither of those who died under violent conditions, but without witnesses or glory, at that time. How then, except by mentioning them, can we call forth the memory of:Antoine Hainques and Pierre Brindeau, poisoned in Cochin China in 1670; Antoine Monestier and Pierre de Lespinay, who died during deportation in Siam in 1690; Jean Genoud and Jean Joret thrown overboard near Ava in 1693; Pierre Langlois who died in jail in Peking in 1785; Paul Souviron, who died in jail in Canton in 1792; Jean-Baptiste Rabeau thrown into sea in Bengale in 1810; Jean Bérard and Jean Vallon, poisoned in the Isle of Nias, in 1832.

A period of development of photography and missionary propaganda, the middle part of the XIXth century was also a time when the number of leavers increased sugnificantly. From 1660 to 1789, there were 243 departures, 2 or 3 a year. Then, from 1790 to 1815, while the Seminary was closed off, during the Revolution and Empire, there were 23 departures spread out over 25 years. Six departures in 1820, five years after the re-opening of the Seminary, 12 in 1830, 31 in 1860, 62 in 1889 and 73 in 1898, a record year.

A significant slump preceded World War I, with 30 departures in 1913. Only twelve Missionaries left during the four years of the conflict, during which many were mobilized and called back to Europe, 13 of them dying on the front line. Numbers then increased progressively with 17 departures in 1920, 24 in 1932 and an average of 50 every year between 1945 and 1949. The post-conciliary crisis brought about a dramatic drop: 15 departures in 1966, 8 in 1970, zero from 1978 to 1984 and an upturn since then, with an average of one or two departures a year.

The curve of Missionaries killed in service is slightly different: 13 between 1670 and 1800, 76 during the XIXth century among which we have the 22 canonized Martyrs, victims of the major persecutions from 1815 to 1866, and 88 during the XXth century, among which 61 between 1945 and 1975, the thirty most murderous years in the entire history of the Foreign Missions.