Auguste Chapdelaine was born in France on February 6, 1814. When he was twenty he entered the seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1843, and in 1851 he joined the Paris Foreign Missions in Paris. In April 1852, he joined the Catholic mission to China. The Taiping Rebellion made the Chinese government suspicious of Christians. Foreigners were forbidden to enter the area.
By December 8, 1854, he was able to celebrate Mass with about 300 local people in the Guangxi province. He was arrested and thrown in prison ten days after he arrived, and released after about two weeks. He was personally threatened. He went back in early 1855, and again in December. He was denounced on February 22, 1856. He was arrested again with other Chinese Catholics. He was accused of stirring up insurrection. He was condemned to decapitation and was severely beaten, and locked in a small cage, hung at the gate of the jail. He was had already died when he was decapitated. His head was hung from a tree. He died that same day.