Every year the feast of the 118 Vietnamese martyrs is celebrated on the 24th of November. For this occasion I have written a short story about them and I would like share it with our sister communities in the Northwest.
Christianity first came to VietNam in the 16th century while the country was divided into two kingdoms, the northern one and the southern one. They were often in tense relations or at war with each other. To the poor, the peasants, country boys and girls the first missionaries (from France, Spain, Portugal …) looked like colorful giants from another planet, with white skin, blond hair, blue eyes and a big nose. However, they were good friends and they brought with them many things they had never seen before: books, newspapers, tools, machines, and delicious cakes and candy. They learned to speak Vietnamese quickly. Above all their teachings gave them, for the first time, hope for salvation, equality and social justice. They were really good soil for the seed of the good news.
On the other hand, to preach Christianity in a traditional society based on Buddhism and Confucianism is to challenge the rights and privileges of the kings and the ruling classes, who called Christianity the wrong religion. They saw Christianity as a direct threat to their monarchy, civilization and culture. No doubt the missionaries would meet with adverse reactions from many. Suspicion, hatred and outright repression are a matter of course. The situation was even worse when the government of one kingdom suspected you of being spies for the other. However, the fledgling church was able to take roots and flourish in such a hostile environment. There were martyrs in those early years. But widespread, systematic repressions of Catholics did not happen until the first half of the 19th century.
King Gia Long (reigning 1802- 1820), the founder of the Nguyen Dynasty, was grateful to the French for their substantial military support during his conquest and reunification of the country, adopted an open diplomacy, welcoming many foreigners including missionaries into the country, even into his own royal court. When the second king Minh Mang (reigning 1820-1841), third king Thieu Tri (reigning 1841- 1847) and fourth king Tu Duc (reigning 1847-1883)) became aware of the threats of invasion by the French Navy, they drastically changed course, reversing the policy of their father and grandfather. Historians think that they should have mobilized all resources available and organized all factions of the population into a national united front, build up a strong army. Instead, they adopted an alienating policy by expulsing foreigners, friends and foes alike. All over the country they started a widespread systematic campaign of repression against Catholics, foreign and local alike. Towards the end of his reign Tu Duc did express publicly his regrets for the deadly errors he had made, and showed considerable sympathy for the Catholics. But it was too late! His errors had provided a good pretext for the French to invade the country in an easy war of sophisticated gunboats, cannons and rifles against primitive bows and arrows, swords, machetes and staves. The worse the loss incurred by the royalist resistance forces the harder the persecution of Catholics. This was the darkest area of the Vietnamese Church during which hundreds of thousands were put in jails or went to their exiles, hundreds were killed. While the official number of martyrs is 118, the number of undocumented ones is believed to be much higher.
It is impossible to tell the story of all of these martyrs in a newspaper article. The best I can do is to talk about some most popular ones.
The most popular of the Vietnamese martyrs probably was Father Le Bao Tinh whose adult life covered the consecutive reigns of three kings, Minh Mang, Thieu Tri and Tu Duc, well known as the worst persecutors of Catholics. When he was a young seminarian, it was unknown why he felt so much fascinated by the idea of worshipping God as a hermit that he secretly took to the forest and lived in a cave. His superiors were very surprised. They could not afford to lose one of the smartest young men that the church could rely on in the upcoming difficult times. Nobody knew exactly where he was, so they decided to wait until the following Easter, when all Catholics were expected to return to their parish to have confession, as required by cannon law. And they were right. Disguised as an ordinary parishioner, Le B. Tinh returned and went to confession. He immediately was recognized by his confessor, who tried his best and was able to persuade him to return and stay with the community.
And Le Bao Tinh proved to be an invaluable gift for the Church in that special period, in which one of the most challenging tasks was how to continue to train seminarians when the very survival of the church was at stake. This job was entrusted to Le Bao Tinh who accepted it however difficult and dangerous it was. He disguised the only seminary of the land at So Kien into a school of languages (Chinese and Latin), knowing well that the authorities, who had granted a license for the school, would never turn their eyes away from it.
In an effort to win the sympathy of the people for his school of languages and for himself, he also practiced traditional medicine for many patients including soldiers and mandarins. Many of them were healed, and became grateful friends.
He was such a smart young guy that several times he was chosen to go on dangerous secret missions to Luangprabang, Laos and Macao, China to get the much needed help for the destitute church. Traveling at that time was mostly done on foot, sometimes by boating and sailing. The routes were so hard and dangerous that only bold, clever and able-bodied men could undertake. On one of these missions, his group was badly attacked by highwaymen but they managed to survive.
Whatever achievements he might have made, he knew his fate was sealed. He was arrested twice. In 1841, by sheer luck, King Thieu Tri converted his death sentence to life in exile. Miraculously while waiting to go to his exile, the king died and a new king, Tu Duc, ascended the throne. As was customary, the new King wanted to show his clemency by issuing a general order of clemency for many. Le B. Tinh was freed from jail. Believing that divine providence had saved him he returned to his job at the school unintimidated!
In 1857, the governor general of Nam Dinh, responding to a request by his inferior mandarins, issued an order for a round up operation to search for and arrest all the religious chiefs in his jurisdiction. While giving the order the governor did not forget his poor friend, Le B. Tinh, who had successfully treated his trachoma some years before, and whom he knew would be a prime target. He immediately sent a secret messenger to tell Le B. Tinh to run away before the soldiers came.
Unfortunately, the messenger had a stroke on the way. Le B. Tinh was not alerted and was arrested.
As a last resort, the governor general advised Le Bao Tinh to renounce his faith, at least temporarily, so that his life could be spared. To this offer Tinh humbly and resolutely answered: “My body is in your highness’ hands, you can do whatever you want with it. But my soul belongs to God. Nothing can cause me to sacrifice it.”
Le B. Tinh was executed by decapitation in 1857 in Nam Dinh City, northern Vietnam. His death was an irreplaceable loss for the church, but it was not a surprise. Everybody knew and he himself knew that sooner or later he would be put to death to glorify the Lord.
What was surprising? It was the case of Tong Viet Buong, a privileged mandarin who served in the inner circle of King Minh Mang and who became a great Catholic martyr. His father and grandfather had been mandarins. He himself served as security chief in the King’s court. Nobody knew in his private life he was a good Catholic. He had the King’s favor, enjoyed a happy life until a rebellion broke out and was defeated. To celebrate these victory mandarins and their troops rushed to a beautiful Buddhist Temple in a mountain resort to give thanks to Buddha. Buong refused to go. The King was infuriated and ordered to arrest him. In front of the King and his mandarins, Buong boldly professed his faith. The angry King ordered him to be decapitated. Thanks to the pleadings of high ranking mandarins who tried to save his life on the grounds that his father, grandfather and he himself had provided devoted services to the King, the penalty was commuted from death to caning, in which he was beaten 80 blows with a cane, deprived of all ranks and privileges, and he was permanently expulsed from the royal court.
King Minh Mang hated Catholics so much that he could not forget Tong Viet Buong for long. When he remembered that Tong Viet Buong was still around out there, poor but unharmed, he ordered to arrest him again! In prison, he was tortured and persuaded to renounce his faith so that he could save his life, recover his rank and privileges. Even the King’s highest ranking mandarin in charge of criminal affairs joined in these efforts. Humbly and boldly he answered: “Your highness shows pity on me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, but please allow me to be faithful to my God and Lord that I adore.”
After his execution, his body was secretly carried to the outside of the city and interred there in the cover of a dark night. They feared that the news of a close body guard of the king becoming a Catholic martyr would be a big shame for the king and his royal court.
During the persecution the most vulnerable people were the western missionaries (from France, Spain, Portugal …) with their large stature, white skin, blue eyes and a big nose in their faces, they became conspicuous targets, wherever they went. Whoever dared to provide them with a hiding place? Whoever had the ways and means to protect them? However there were always people who tried to do the impossible when it comes to faith and love. Typical of those heroic people was an old and weak woman whose name was Nguyen T. Thanh, who lived in Phuc Nhac village, Ninh Binh province, northern Vietnam.
When the mandarins and his soldiers came to her area to round up the missionaries, Thanh could not find any safe places to hide two of the foreign missionaries she had supported for years at her local church, she desperately put one in a ditch behind her house and put a big heap of straw on top, and she put the other in the crude bamboo attic in her kitchen. Unfortunately these were the only places that looked suspicious in the house, and the soldiers had no difficulty pulling them out and dragging them away together with the poor landlady!
The story did not stop there. In jail, she was treated badly. She had to go hungry, suffered intimidation and tortures. Times and again she was persuaded to renounce her faith in exchange for leniency. She never complied. Her children and grandchildren were sometimes allowed to visit her in jail. How emaciated and exhausted they saw she was! But to their astonishment, she was calm and boldly advised them to thank God for her, to continue to silently practice their faith in their hearts and to never renounce it. Pointing to the blood smears in her clothes, she told them “These are really roses, not blood!” Although her faith was strong, her fragile health could not stand for long. She collapsed in jail, leaving behind a moving and inspirational example of a woman martyr.
Invincible heroes
It is interesting to know that all of these 118 martyrs were put to the same test. A holy cross was put on the ground and each of the soon-to-be martyrs was asked: “Are you willing to step over it?” if YES, you are freed. If “NO” you are going to die. The line between life and death is so thin that without invincible faith you are most likely to say “YES,” especially when you were persuaded to temporarily say YES for now, and change your mind later. However, the answers were “NO” without fail.
A grateful church
The inspiring examples of the martyrs have become an important component of our spiritual heritage which gives us more maturity, resilience, wisdom and heroism to cope with the challenges of modern history. Today the communists are in full control of the country. For several years they brutally cracked down on the church, which was wise enough to avoid confrontations, suffer and pray in silence, accept tremendous losses, both material and spiritual.
Then, something like a miracle happened when the government became more and more frustrated because of their complete isolation and tragic economic failure. To save themselves they adopted an open door policy to attract foreign investments and rescue the economy. To achieve this goal, they also tried to improve their image by getting closer to the church, giving greater leeway for religious rites and other activities. Taking advantage of this golden opportunity, the church rose spectacularly and managed to bring church life back to full swing.
Today if you go to Vietnam on a tour around the country, you will probably be surprised to see so many magnificent churches and beautiful Marian Shrines rising everywhere. You would marvel at how the people of God dare to profess their faith so proudly, not only in the churches, but also in the streets and public squares of a communist state. Isn’t it a miracle?
Soon, the new regime became completely isolated from the outside world. Inside the country they could not have the full cooperation of the people. Without foreign investments, and without the cooperation of the people all of their economic development efforts failed and the communist state became a group of pariahs In an effort to encourage foreign investments to rescue the economy they had no choice but adopt an open door policy that the only solution is an open door policy and tried to improve the image of their regime by giving the Catholics and other religions greater leeway for their religious services and other activities.
Of course there never is real freedom of religions in a communist state, but something is better than nothing. Taking advantage of this development Catholic communities all over the country have risen to a new life, and they did it better than expected!
Today if you went to Vietnam on a visit, you would be surprised to see magnificent churches proudly rising along your way, more new churches than you could see elsewhere. You would marvel at picturesque gigantesque Marian Shrines that have become famous tourist resorts attracting thousands of visitors at weekends or on feast days, pilgrims and tourists alike.
Today if you go to Vietnam on a tour around the country, you will probably be surprised to see so many magnificent churches and beautiful Marian Shrines rising everywhere. You will marvel at how the people of God dare to profess their faith so strongly, so proudly, not only in the churches, but also in the streets and public squares. And all of these religious activities are happening in a communist state. Isn’t it a miracle?
Vũ Vượng