Saint Joseph Ngô Duy Hiển

Father Joseph Ngô Duy Hiển was born in 1769 in the village of Quần Phương Hạ, Nam Định province. As a boy he joined the mission household known as the House of God, studying and at the same time helping Bishop Delgado, whose Vietnamese name was Y. After his ordination as a priest, he made his vows in the Dominican Order on October 12, 1812, and was then sent to Manila for further study.

When he returned, he was entrusted with the care of the communities of Hưng Nghĩa, Trung Thành and Cao Mộc. The faithful remember him as a steady man: steady in prayer, steady in the confessional, steady in reminding everyone to prepare their hearts for the sacraments. Nothing loud, only quiet faithfulness year after year.

When Emperor Minh Mạng’s ban on the faith was enforced, he was called to help Bishop Henares, whose Vietnamese name was Minh. Danger lurked everywhere, but he did not give up his visits to the faithful.

After his arrest he was taken to the village communal hall, where the governor was waiting. The governor ordered him to step over the cross. The old man replied:

“I worship God, the one God; how could I step on His image?”

The governor had him given forty strokes of the rod, then had a heavy cangue fastened around his neck. At his age, forty strokes were more than anyone could bear. But no one heard him complain. He endured in silence, and in that silence he meditated on the Passion of Jesus, who had also been scourged and had carried the cross.

At the beginning of May 1840, the king approved the sentence. On May 9, 1840, under Emperor Minh Mạng, Father Hiển was beheaded at the execution ground of Nam Định.

He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is May 9.

In more than seventy years of life, he had passed through the House of God, through Manila, through so many Catholic communities. But his life came to its end in a very ordinary place: a Mass just celebrated in a Catholic’s home. Perhaps there is no better way for a priest’s life to end than right after giving the Lord to his flock one last time.