Saint Dominic Nguyễn Đức Nhi

Dominic Nguyễn Đức Nhi was born in 1822 in the Catholic community of Ngọc Cục, Xuân Trường prefecture, Nam Định province. He married, and he and his wife were blessed with many children.

People remember his family as a warm home. He and his wife did more than feed and clothe their children; they taught them to live good lives and to love others. The house was not wealthy, yet they often helped those worse off than themselves. Children who grow up in such a home learn charity first from what their parents do, not from sermons.

In 1861, the edict of dispersal was enforced in Nam Định. On September 14, Nhi was arrested, at about forty years of age. Arrested that same day were four fellow villagers from Ngọc Cục: the healer Dominic Nguyễn Huy Nguyên, Dominic Nguyễn Đức Mạo, and the brothers Andrew Nguyễn Mạnh Tường and Vincent Nguyễn Mạnh Tương.

He was held for four days at Xuân Trường prefecture, and then exiled to the village of Bạch Cốc, Vụ Bản district. At home, his wife held their children close, not knowing when her husband would return.

Nine months. A heavy cangue around his neck, his feet in stocks. The words “Tả Đạo” carved on his cheek. Never enough rice to eat, never enough water to drink.

Once his family was allowed to visit. They found that he had kept his peace of heart, his face without resentment. Perhaps it was he who comforted his wife and children.

In prison, the five men of Ngọc Cục lived like a small community. They prayed together, said the Rosary, fasted together. Nhi himself fasted three days every week. Hunger was already a torment, yet he chose to add to it. That was how a poor father, with nothing left in his hands, could still make an offering to God.

On June 15, 1862, the provincial mandarin came to review the case. He had a cross laid in the middle of the courtyard and called each man out in turn. When it was Nhi’s turn, he said:

“I am determined not to trample on the holy image, because to do so would offend God and publicly deny the faith.”

He and his friends were tied up and left in the harsh June sun of the North until evening, and then taken back to prison. That night was their last.

On June 16, 1862, Dominic Nhi was beheaded at Bạch Cốc, together with his four friends. His body was buried at the place of execution, and after the years of persecution it was brought back to Ngọc Cục.

He was beatified on April 29, 1951, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is June 16.

As you read about Nhi, think of his wife too. For nine months she raised their children alone, keeping them fed and clothed while worrying about her husband in prison. The biography does not record a single word of hers. But that silent patience is also part of the story of martyrdom.

Nhi taught his children by his deeds all his life. And the last lesson he left them was not in words either. He gave it with his life.