Vietnam: Honouring legacy of Christian martyrs

By Francesco Bartolini

On August 1, the Roman Martyrology pays homage to two martyred Christian priests who were “decapitated under the Emperor Minh Mang” in the city of Nam Dinh in Vietnam: Domenico Nguyen Van Hanh and Bernardo Vu Van Due.

Although not much is known about them, Christianity values their lives and preserves their faith and dedication to the cross, a sentiment that is transmitted to future generations under the sole detail of “decapitated for Christ”.

According to the Vatican’s Fides news agency, the monarchs and authorities of Vietnam signed fifty-three edicts that led to the death and persecution of thousands of Christians, as well as native local priests.

Throughout the centuries, many anonymous burials of these martyrs took place. Catholics have preserved their memory and celebrated their faith, contributing to the growth of the thriving local Church.

Pope Leo XIII was the first Pope to beatify these martyrs: precisely 64 Vietnamese and a total of 117 martyrs were elevated to sainthood from the beginning of the 20th century.

Another twenty-eight were beatified by the following Pope Pius X, and Pope Pius XII made twenty-five others Blesseds in Vietnam in 1951.

A decree issued on April 18, 1986, sought to combine the canonisation processes of the 117 martyrs, of whom Fides says 96 are Vietnamese: thirty-seven priests, sixteen catechists, ten Dominican tertiaries, one woman and one seminarian.

Adding to the total, ten French and eleven Spanish missionaries were also martyred, comprising of priests and bishops from Paris’ Society for Foreign Missions and the Dominican Order of Preachers.

Several royal edicts state the different ways the martyrs’ lives were taken. The majority of the deaths came by decapitation, namely the two aforementioned saints, while the rest ranged from torture in prison and amputations to hangings and being burned at the stake.