Saint Luke Vũ Bá Loan

Luke Vũ Bá Loan was born in 1756 in Trại Bút, Châu Giang commune, Duy Tiên district, Hà Nam province. As a boy he went to live in the presbytery, learning to read, learning prayers, helping with the work of God’s house.

He was ordained a priest in the time of the Tây Sơn, in years of turmoil and changing dynasties. From then on his priestly life passed through the Tây Sơn dynasty, the reign of Gia Long, and then the reign of Minh Mạng. For more than half a century he witnessed times when the Church was at peace, and times when it was persecuted.

Bishop Khiêm once praised Father Loan as one of the finest priests in Annam. But the people of his parish remember him for something closer to home: he taught what was good, and he himself lived exactly as he taught.

From 1829, when he was already past seventy, he still took charge of the parish of Kẻ Sở. At an age when others had retired, he still visited the faithful, still sat in the confessional, still celebrated Mass.

Under Emperor Minh Mạng, the persecution was fiercer than ever. Some village officials hunted him down, hoping the credit for capturing a “priest” would make up for money they had embezzled. An old priest became a bargaining chip for others’ safety.

He was taken to the provincial mandarin in Hà Nội. Catholics came to visit him, worried and sad. He comforted them instead:

“The blessing of dying for the faith is something I have longed for these many years, and now that it is near, I am overjoyed.”

These many years. Perhaps through decades of watching his fellow priests and the faithful fall one after another, he had quietly hoped that one day he too would share their lot.

The mandarins tried to persuade him to step over the cross in order to be released. They thought a frail old man would be easily shaken. Father Loan replied:

“Old as I am, would I cling to life and fear death? I am a priest; how could I step over the cross as you tell me?”

The answer carries some of the wry humor of an experienced old man. Eighty-four already, what was left to regret? And besides, how could a priest who had taught the faithful to venerate the cross for fifty years trample on it at the end of his life?

On June 5, 1840, Father Luke Loan was beheaded at the Cầu Giấy city gate in Hà Nội, where many other martyrs also shed their blood. The Catholics of the surrounding communities had hammocks ready to carry his body home.

He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is June 5.

People often fear old age, fear growing weak, fear being useless. Father Loan shows that old age can be the most beautiful season: the season of a calm heart, no longer tangled up in things, ready to go home.

For eighty-four years he lived to teach people to love God. And on the last day, he taught one more lesson: when you have loved God long enough, death is no longer something to fear. It is only the door you have long been waiting for.