Saint Dominic Nguyễn Văn Cẩm

He was born in 1810 in the village of Cẩm Giàng, recorded in some places as Cẩm Chương, in Kẻ Roi parish, Bắc Ninh province. From early childhood the boy Cẩm was taken into the seminary, growing up amid the sound of bells, prayers and lessons. Then he was ordained a priest.

He chose to live by the spirituality of the Dominican Third Order, a path closely bound to the Rosary. Wherever he went, he urged the faithful to pray the Rosary, as if handing them a small cord to hold on to through stormy days. And he did not mind long roads. Though he belonged to the Eastern Vicariate, when he saw that the Central Vicariate had a great many faithful in need of shepherds, he volunteered to go and serve there.

No one recorded how many miles he traveled or how many homes he visited. But that decision, “let me go”, says who he was: a man who put the needs of his flock above his own security.

At the beginning of 1859, the ban on the faith was strictly enforced. He still moved among the communities. In the Catholic hamlet of Hà Lan, someone recognized him and reported him to the mandarin to collect a reward. On January 21, 1859, he was arrested and taken to Hưng Yên province.

Before the governor, he admitted that he was a priest. They beat him and ordered him to trample on the cross. He would not. The mandarin had him locked in a cramped cage, barely big enough for one person to sit huddled. He lived in it for many months.

But something remarkable happened. The guards and jailers, seeing the gentle priest in his cage day after day, gradually grew fond of him. They let the faithful visit. He was even able to send a letter to Bishop Valentine Vinh, and another priest was sent to give him the sacraments. The cage could hold his body, but it could not cut the bond between the shepherd and his flock.

Perhaps he was simply living the Gospel he preached: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.” He treated even his guards kindly, and that very kindness opened the door for his people to come to him.

On March 11, 1859, Father Cẩm was led to the Ba Tòa execution ground in Hưng Yên province and beheaded. The faithful took his body to be buried at the parish of Lai Tê, Diocese of Bắc Ninh, where his remains are still kept today.

He was beatified on April 29, 1951, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is March 11.

People usually remember long journeys for where they ended. Father Cẩm’s journey is remembered for why he set out: wherever many people were in need, he went. And in the end, he traveled the longest road of all, with his own life.