Antoine Henri Marie Pierrot, a Catholic priest from the Netherlands who devoted most of his life to Taiwan, on Friday died in Yunlin County at the age of 96.
“Please join us in praying for the repose of the soul of Father Antoine Henri Marie Pierrot S.A.M, who was called home to heaven this morning at 4am at St Joseph’s Hospital in Huwei [虎尾], Yunlin County,” the hospital wrote on Facebook.
Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) expressed his condolences and urged the public to follow Pierrot’s lead and use love to make Taiwan a better place.
Photo copied by Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
Pierrot, who came to Taiwan in 1954 aged 31, established St Joseph’s Hospital in 1956 with Belgian priest Georges Massin to take care of poor people in remote rural areas.
To raise funds for the hospital, Pierrot went to preach in the US for 10 years before returning to Taiwan in 1970.
Since then, he devoted his entire life to the hospital and looked after people in need from Yunlin and elsewhere.
In addition to establishing a healthcare network to serve people in the central and coastal areas of western Taiwan, Pierrot also founded the St Joseph Social Welfare Foundation, a charity.
He was awarded medals by presidents, the government and charity groups, including the Alien Permanent Resident Lifelong Contribution Award from the Ministry of the Interior in 2011 and the Order of Brilliant Star with Violet Grand Cordon from then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2015.
Pierrot’s life and work was connected to Yunlin for more than 60 years, and he often said he viewed Taiwan as his homeland and described himself as Taiwanese.
A keen photographer, Pierrot took many photographs of ordinary people and life in rural Taiwan.
An exhibition of his photographs taken between 1954 and 1984 was held in Douliu (斗六), the county seat, in 2016.
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