Maurice Tornay was a Swiss Catholic priest and missionary of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine who served in China and Tibet. Born in 1910 in Orsières, he dedicated his life to missionary work, eventually becoming a parish priest in southeast Tibet. He died in 1949 while attempting to travel to Lhasa disguised as a pilgrim to request religious tolerance from the Dalai Lama. Because he was killed by monks while defending his faith, he was later beatified by the Catholic Church.