Picturing Sainthood in Shaanxi Province: The Miraculous Story of how Etienne Faber Became a Tudi Ye

This paper aims to reconstruct the story of Étienne Fabre, a Jesuit missionary who spent most of his life in a remote village in Shaanxi province, where he became a model of missionary zeal and piety. A cause for canonisation was launched at the beginning of the 20th century, but was soon abandoned; in the meantime, Étienne had been turned into a Tudi Ye, the local Chinese earth god, by the people of Hanzhong. As a result, his tomb is still revered by Christians and non-Christians alike for its miraculous power to ward off evil and heal the sick. In 1925, on the occasion of the Jubilee proclaimed b Pius XI, a World Missionary Exhibition was held at the Holy See. In a small pavilion, there was a statue of Etienne Fabre, dressed in sacerdotal garb and wearing a hat, with two tigers on either side, as is often the case with visual representations of Tudi Ye. This image of Etienne Fabre, which was quite common in the area after his death, coupled with the Jesuit's commitment to helping the local people and performing miracles far beyond the circle of the Christian community, raises interesting questions about the lived religion of the Chinese as well as about grassroots Christianity in China. Why did the local people choose Tudi Ye to represent Fabre's life and work? How is the miraculous power of Chinese deities and Christian saints explained in the two religious traditions? What role do images and stories play in the waxing and waning of the popularity of local deities and foreign saints in China? Is this an attempt by the local population to share aspects of the Chinese religious pantheon with a foreign religion, an attempt that could not be implemented and accepted by Christianity?