Saint Augustin Schoeffler (Đông)

Augustin Schoeffler was born on November 21, 1822, in the diocese of Nancy-Metz, France, the eldest of six children. When he said he wanted to go as a missionary to the East, his parents were sick with worry. Everyone knew that those who left in those days might never come back. Still, Augustin entered the Paris Foreign Missions Society.

On May 29, 1847, he was ordained a priest. In November of that year he boarded a ship for the Far East. In 1848 he arrived in Hà Nội and was assigned to work in the Đoài region. The Catholics called him Father Đông.

In Lent of 1851, he went to the parish of Bầu Nọ to preach a retreat. Someone tipped off the canton patrol officer. The man lay in wait and arrested him on the way through the forest, together with Father Phượng, a Vietnamese priest, and two catechists.

The officer demanded a ransom so huge that no one could raise it. Father Đông understood that if things went on like this, all four would be taken to the provincial capital. He made the officer an offer:

“If you are determined to demand a ransom, then release my three helpers.”

And the other three were released. He stayed behind alone.

He was taken to Sơn Tây. It was on that road that he sent his reassuring message back to the faithful. Before the court, he did not step over the cross, nor did he let slip a single name that could harm the community.

At dawn on May 1, 1851, Father Đông was beheaded at the Năm Mẫu execution ground. His body was first buried on the spot where he died, and later taken to Bách Lộc.

He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is May 1.

Father Đông worked in Vietnam for less than three years, and died at only twenty-eight. At home there was a mother who had worried from the day her son left. In the Đoài region there were Catholics whose names he kept secret to the end. And in the forest of Bầu Nọ, three men got to go home because one stayed behind.