Saint Joseph Nguyễn Duy Tuân (Hoan)

Father Joseph Nguyễn Duy Tuân was born in 1811 in the Catholic hamlet of Trần Xá, Cao Xá parish, Hưng Yên province, into a poor farming family. His parents raised him in the faith. He entered the seminary and studied for many years, and was not ordained until 1857, at forty-six. The following year he joined the Dominican Order and received the religious name Hoan.

His priesthood began just as the persecution under Emperor Tự Đức was at its worst. He was put in charge of Ngọc Đồng. To reach the faithful he had to keep moving from one hiding place to another, travel in secret, and bring the sacraments to people behind closed doors. Any trip could be his last. He kept going anyway, because if he waited for peace, many people would not live to see it.

In the spring of 1861, the dying woman’s request reached the mandarin instead. Her son had told him where the priest was hiding. Soldiers surrounded the village, seized the priest, put him in the cangue and took him to the prison of Hưng Yên. A call to a dying woman’s bedside had become a trap.

At his trial the mandarin promised to free him if he gave up his faith, and called it a perverse religion. He calmly replied:

“This is not a perverse religion as you say. Our religion teaches us to worship God, who created heaven and earth and all things in the universe.”

He refused to step on the cross and was savagely beaten. Still, the faithful found ways to visit him in prison. He comforted them and, when he could, gave them the sacraments. Prison did not stop him being a priest.

On April 29, 1861, Father Tuân was beheaded at the execution ground of Hưng Yên. He was beatified on April 29, 1951, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is April 29.

He waited nearly half his life to become a priest, and was a priest for only four years. He spent all four of them seeking out the people who needed him. In the end, his readiness to come to a sickbed is what led him to the execution ground. He probably had no regrets. A good shepherd goes when he is called, even knowing the call may be a trap.