Family background

Father  Alfred Giger (Mandarin name Ji Shouchang) was born on March 15, 1919, to a devout Catholic family in Lagos Switzerland. From his youth, he already aspired to the priesthood. "To serve the poor in Asia" was the fundamental value of Fr. Giger’s missionary life.

 

The Bethlehem Mission Society

Fr. Giger was a member of the Bethlehem Mission Society (SMB) in Switzerland. SMB was one of the missionary orders established abroad by the Catholic Church in 1921. The order uses "Bethlehem" in its name, which refers to the town in which Christ was born. Its founding mission is aimed towards evangelization and living the gospel spirit in all aspects of life. At the same time, the order also encourages cooperation and the exchange of literary and religious culture between countries and serves the poor and the marginalized.

 

Seminary and Ordination

Fr. Giger was ordained into the priesthood on Sunday, March 3, 1945. He proceeded to attend the University of Fribourg to study Mandarin Chinese for one year. After being so eager to preach the gospel in Asia, Fr. Giger was overjoyed when his superior told him he was ready to go. His family and relatives rejoiced and celebrated with him. 

 

In Beijing and Japan

Fr. Giger arrived with a few companions in China on June 18, 1946, intending to stay in the Qiqihar diocese of the Northeastern. However, because of the civil war in China, they remained in Beijing. He was expelled from China by the Chinese Communist Party on December 14, 1952. Upon his expulsion, Fr. Giger obtained a visa to Japan through Hong Kong and transferred to Japan where he began to study Japanese.

 

Missionary work in Taitung

During the autumn of 1953, the Bethlehem mission society began missionary and humanitarian work in Taitung, Taiwan. Fr. Giger heard that the Japanese language was useful in Taiwan and so applied to the general superior for admission and joined the group of SMB missionaries there. 

He arrived on January 29, 1954. Fr. Hilber Jakob, who oversaw missionary work in Taitung, appointed Fr. Giger in charge of education in the Malan and Luye regions and later also of the evangelization efforts in Yanping, Guanshan, and Chihshang. Soon after, Fr. Giger began his work on Orchid Island which kept him very busy. He established Luye as a center for his missionary work and saw much success, particularly in the Heping village at Luye. He was concerned with not only the salvation of souls but with the improvement of the day to day lives of the locals. In addition to preaching the gospel, he saw to it that their children were educated and that women also received vocational training. To tend to his parishioners, Fr. Giger was always non-stop riding on motorcycles between churches that spanned across various towns. 

Missionary work in Orchid Island

On August 1, 1954, Fr. Giger boarded a ship for Orchid Island. From there, he soon developed a deep relationship with the people on the island. Immediately after his arrival, he made sure that supplies and aid did not cease to come to Orchid Island. For the distressed islanders who were often hungry and cold, the supplies appeared as if they had been sent from God. 

Fr. Giger spent sixteen years in total at Orchid Island, during which he developed a great love for the people and spent great efforts to improve their living conditions. He treated them as if they were members of his own family.

Many Tao men at eighteen still could not speak Mandarin. That and the racial difference, caused many of them to be bullied in the military service. Mr. Shin-Yu Lin, who was once Fr Giger’s catechist, later was elected county council member. Out of concern for the Tao men’s difficulty in the military service, he went to appeal to the government to try to postpone the military obligation for Tao men. However, Mr. Lin was sentenced to death as a traitor and thrown into prison. Fr. Giger rushed to Taipei during the night and saved him right before he was to be executed.

Fr. Giger had told his family that for the Tao people, he would be willing to give up his life. The Tao people were very moved by his love for them. 

 

Religion and Culture

Fr. Giger saw that the Tao ritual mipazos worshipped "akey do langaraen" who was "the master of heaven and earth," which he saw as a concept consistent with the Catholic faith. As a result, he often joined them in their traditional rituals and encouraged the catechists to respect and pass on their traditional culture. He was always sure to join them in traditional celebrations when he happened to be there. 

During his missionary work at Orchid Island, Fr. Giger would also join their funerals. He did not insist that they change their funeral practices but encouraged that they merge Catholic belief with their own culture and traditions. 

 

Education efforts

Fr. Giger envisioned a future where the tribes had access to a good education. He wished that women could receive vocational training, and made one of the emphases of his work at Orchid Island be the cultivation of the people’s talents and skills. 

At that time the mandatory education was only six years. In order to enter middle school, one had to study on their own to pass entrance exams. Because of this, none of the Tao people’s children who newly arrived in Taitung was able to pass the entrance exams for middle school. Fr. Giger found instructors to tutor the children for a year and with their help, they were then able to pass. Fr. Giger himself paid for their living costs and tutoring fees. 

Fr. Giger’s hard work was not in vain: Orchid Island’s first graduate of teacher training programs was one whom Fr. Giger had looked after since childhood. There were, of course, many more who graduated from agriculture, business, nursing, and other schools. They all returned to Orchid Island, bringing back their talents to improve their homes. Some taught, some supervised farming and others worked for the local government.

 

The bad news

During the evening on March 9, 1970, Fr. Giger was bringing three young women from the Luye and Haituan township to Taipei to study homemaking at a Catholic charity center run by the Helpers of the Holy Souls. Unfortunately, they had a car accident on the state route to the north while passing Xinying early on the 10th. Rushing him to the hospital did not help and Fr. Giger died there. 

After three days, Fr. Giger’s body was brought back to Taitung for his funeral at the Catholic church in Malan. After the Mass, the funeral procession to the cemetery extended for hundreds of meters in Taitung City. When the coffin passed by, many people knelt down to pay their respects. It is hard to imagine just how many lives were touched by Fr. Giger during his life. Even those who were not Christians missed and honored him. 

The soldiers who had viewed Fr. Giger as a troublesome obstacle, were shocked at the news of his death. Only at this point did they understand that Fr. Giger had loved the people of Orchid Island with his life. On the day of his funeral, all flags on the island were flown at half-staff to mourn and respect him. 

Fr. Giger was buried in a small cemetery run by the Bethlehem Mission Society, which was at the back of the Hsiaoma, St. Nicolaus Catholic Church. He now rests in the land which he greatly loved, and continues to watch over the people there.

Fr. Giger’s accidental death was in some ways a wakeup call for the Tao people. Those whose lives had been touched by him believed that he had died young. His dreams for Orchid Island were not yet complete, and they volunteered to found the “Si-Sasagazo Memorial Cultural Foundation” in order to continue his great love for the people of Orchid Island, and to let the love of God be manifested forever.

． Photo credit: Si-Sasagazo Memorial Cultural Foundation