Saint Francis Đỗ Văn Chiểu

Francis Đỗ Văn Chiểu was born in 1797 in the village of Trung Lễ, Liên Thủy parish, Nam Định province. After his years of study, he chose to become a catechist, living by the spirituality of the Dominican Order.

He worked beside Bishop Domingo Henares, whose Vietnamese name was Minh, a Spanish bishop who had lived in Vietnam for nearly half a century. He taught the catechism, accompanied the bishop on his visits to the Catholic communities, and cared for soldiers and for families whose loved ones had been arrested. A catechist like that was the bishop’s other arm, reaching places he could not go himself.

The persecution reached into his own family too. It is said he once asked for a Mass to be offered for his younger brother. We do not know more, but that small detail shows how the pain of those times touched every home.

In 1838, under Emperor Minh Mạng, the manhunt was fiercer than ever. Chiểu and Bishop Minh, then seventy-three, took a boat to look for a hiding place. A storm forced them to put in and seek shelter.

In June 1838, at Xương Điền, a fisherman denounced them for a reward. Teacher and disciple were arrested and taken to Nam Định.

Chiểu was given thirty strokes of the rod, then chained hand and foot and thrown into prison. The mandarin used promises, then beatings, to force him to step over the holy image. He even promised clemency.

Chiểu answered the mandarin with a question:

“When Your Excellency lies down to rest, would you agree to let your son trample on your face?”

A very Vietnamese question. Every Vietnamese understands: for a child to step on his father’s face is the worst kind of unfilial outrage. How then could a believer step on the image of God, his Father? He did not need to explain theology. He only needed to mention filial piety.

In prison he was close to Bishop Minh. It was the bishop who helped him receive the sacraments to prepare himself. The two had worked together for so many years, fled together, and now waited together for the day of execution.

On June 26, 1838, teacher and disciple were led to the Bảy Mẫu execution ground. The faithful followed, weeping. Chiểu turned and said to them:

“Brothers and sisters, go home, do not cry any more; today, my teacher and I are truly going home.”

Then he spoke his last words to God:

“Lord, into Your hands I commend my soul.”

He was beheaded on the same day as Bishop Minh. His body was first buried at the execution ground, and later taken to Trung Lễ, his home village.

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

“Truly going home.” Vietnamese people often say that this life is only a place to stay for a while, and our true home is in heaven. Chiểu lived that saying to the very end. For him, the execution ground was not the end, but the village gate of his true homeland.

And he did not go alone. He went with the teacher, the father he had followed for so many years. Perhaps there could be no more beautiful road home than that.