Martyr 68 of 117 · Layperson
Saint Michael Nguyễn Huy Mỹ
“Would you be willing, my wife?”
1804 – 1838 · Feast day August 12
Village headman, from Ninh Bình · Vietnamese
Before he died, the village headman Mỹ asked his wife whether she would be willing if he were blessed to die for the faith. His wife, the mother of their eight children, answered that she was very willing. It may be one of the most beautiful conversations between husband and wife in the whole history of the Vietnamese martyrs.
An orphan boy
Michael Nguyễn Huy Mỹ was born in 1804. He lost both parents when he was small. An aunt took him in and sent him to study Chinese characters and medicine.
An orphan raised lovingly by his aunt, perhaps he learned from that childhood to treasure love and to care for those less fortunate.
The headman of Kẻ Vĩnh
When he grew up he married Mến, the daughter of the parish elder Anthony Nguyễn Tiến Đích in the village of Kẻ Vĩnh. The couple had eight children. The orphan boy now had a full, warm home.
The people of Kẻ Vĩnh trusted him and chose him as village headman. He ran village affairs fairly and never took gifts to favor anyone. He also helped the mission house and the poor. An honest headman was a rare thing in those days.
The village surrounded
On May 11, 1838, Governor Trịnh Quang Khanh led troops to surround Kẻ Vĩnh and demanded that the priest staying there be handed over. The soldiers searched and found Father James Đỗ Mai Năm in the house of the parish elder Đích, Mỹ’s father-in-law.
As village headman, Mỹ was held responsible. He was arrested along with his father-in-law and Father Năm.
Taking the beating for his father-in-law
In prison he was beaten and pressed to step on the cross. He refused.
His father-in-law, the elder Đích, was old and frail. Once, when they were about to beat the old man, Mỹ asked to take the beating in his place. Prison did not break the bonds of that family; it made them deeper.
The last conversation
Their conversation has come down to us. The headman Mỹ asked his wife:
“If I am blessed to die for the faith, will you be willing, my wife?”
His wife answered:
“If you receive so great a blessing, I am very willing.”
Think of that woman. She was about to lose her husband and raise eight children alone, and her own father lay in the same prison facing the same fate. Yet she could still say those words. Perhaps that too was a martyrdom, the silent martyrdom of the one left behind.
August 12, 1838
On August 12, 1838, Michael Mỹ, his father-in-law Anthony Đích, and Father James Năm were beheaded together at the Bảy Mẫu execution ground. Their bodies were taken to Vĩnh Trị.
He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is August 12. (In some documents his name is also recorded as Nguyễn Huy Diệu.)
A holy family
Mỹ’s story is the story of a whole family: the aunt who raised an orphan, the father-in-law who opened his home to a priest, the son-in-law who took a beating for him, and the wife who dared to say, “I am very willing.”
Catholic families today can learn from them that loving one another means more than providing food and clothing. It means helping each other along the road to God, even when that road asks for sacrifice.
Biography on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam ↗