Saint Dominic Trần Văn Toại

Dominic Trần Văn Toại was born in 1812 in the village of Đông Thành, Thái Bình province. He married and supported his wife and children by fishing on the Nhị Bình river, near the Ba Lạt estuary, where the Red River flows into the sea.

A fisherman’s life follows the tides: out early and home late, sitting in a boat in the river wind, hauling nets with calloused hands. Some days the boat is full, some days empty. Every fisherman learns to trust, because so much is out of his hands. Perhaps that is why the Catholic fishing villages along the river kept such a simple, deep faith.

Years of hard work on the water wore him down. In his last years he was sick, and his legs grew unsteady.

According to his biography, on January 17, 1860, Toại and a friend from his village were arrested and taken to Quỳnh Côi district.

The soldiers could see he was old and frail, so they suggested he pay to be let go. Paying one’s way out was common in those days. Many people did it, and no one had the heart to blame them.

But Toại saw it differently. Since his legs were weak, he asked to ride in a cart so he could go with the other Catholics and turn himself in. He wanted his children to see their father hold fast to the faith and not hide. A father may not leave his children much property, but he can leave them an example.

In prison he and his friend were brought out again and again to be questioned, beaten and pressed to step on the cross. They would not.

What stands out is that Toại did not think only of himself. He spoke up to encourage his fellow prisoners:

“Come, brothers, take courage! We are suffering torment for Christ, so let us accept suffering with patience.”

Another time he told them:

“We must persevere to the end, and if need be, be ready to give our lives for God.”

An old, sick man who could barely stand became a support for men stronger than himself. Sometimes strength is not in the legs but in the heart.

On June 5, 1862, Toại was taken to the execution ground of Nam Định. They shut him in a bamboo cage and set it on fire, burning him alive. That same day Dominic Nguyễn Văn Huyên, another fisherman from Đông Thành, died the same way.

A man who had spent his whole life on the water died in the fire.

He was beatified on April 29, 1951, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is June 5.

Toại had no wealth to leave, perhaps only a boat and a net. But he left his children something more precious: the memory of an old father with aching legs who asked for a cart to take him to his trial rather than pay his way out.

Parents today might ask themselves: what am I leaving my children? Toại left his an answer.