Saint Domingo Henares (Minh), Bishop

Domingo Henares was born on December 19, 1765, in Baena, in the south of Spain. On August 30, 1783, at seventeen, he entered the Dominican Order. He was sent to Manila to continue his studies and was ordained a priest there on September 20, 1789.

On October 29, 1790, he arrived in Vietnam. He learned the language, took the Vietnamese name Minh, and after only a few months was teaching at the seminary of Tiên Chu. A foreigner who learned that fast must have put his whole heart into it.

Father Minh was given the task of training seminarians, the future Vietnamese priests. Later he became vicar general. On January 9, 1803, he was consecrated coadjutor bishop.

For nearly half a century, Bishop Minh traveled through the parishes of a vast mission territory, teaching, visiting Catholic communities, giving the sacraments and training the next generation. How many Vietnamese priests did he teach? How many communities did he visit? No one could count them.

Bishop Hermosilla, a fellow Dominican whose Vietnamese name was Liêm, said of him:

“He led a pure life, was zealous for the salvation of souls, and longed to die for the faith.”

In 1838, under Emperor Minh Mạng, the persecution was at its height. Bishop Minh, then seventy-three, had to flee. He and the catechist Francis Chiểu left Quất Lâm by boat.

On the way a storm blew up, and they had to put ashore and look for shelter. A man took them in, then went and reported them to the mandarin for a reward.

On June 11, 1838, the old bishop and the catechist were arrested and taken to Nam Định.

They locked Bishop Minh in a cage. The mandarin demanded to know where the other priests were hiding. One answer would have meant dozens of arrests. He said nothing.

Then the mandarin ordered him to step on the cross. The old bishop replied:

“How could I dare step on the image of God, who made heaven and earth, whom all people must honor and worship?”

On June 26, 1838, Bishop Domingo Henares (Minh) was beheaded. He was seventy-three and had lived forty-eight years in Vietnam.

He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is June 26.

Bishop Minh was born in Spain, but he lived in Vietnam far longer than in his homeland. He spoke Vietnamese, ate Vietnamese rice, taught Vietnamese children and was laid to rest in Vietnamese soil.

Perhaps by the end he no longer thought of himself as a foreigner. He was simply an old father who had loved this land and its people all his life, and who kept the names of his children secret to his last breath.