Saint Joseph Lê Đăng Thị

Joseph Lê Đăng Thị was born in 1825 in Kẻ Văn, Văn Quy village, Quảng Trị province, into a military family. Following the family tradition, he joined the army and served as a squad leader in Hà Tĩnh.

He married and had three children. After his wife died, he married again.

His motto was short: “Better to die than deny the faith.”

In 1859 Emperor Tự Đức’s ban on the faith grew stricter still, and any Catholic soldier could be forced to step on the cross. Thị asked to be discharged on grounds of ill health and went back to Kẻ Văn alone; his family could not come with him.

But leaving the army did not get him out of danger. He was still a former squad leader, and everyone knew he was a Catholic.

On January 28, 1860, he was denounced and arrested along with some of his former comrades.

Once he was allowed home for a while. He could have fled, and no one would have found him. But on the appointed day he came back and gave himself up: a soldier who kept his word, even when it led to prison.

He was held in Quảng Trị with many others. He was beaten, and promised his freedom if he stepped on a holy image. He would not.

Remarkably, his calm and gentleness in prison won over even his guards. One grew so fond of him that he asked to become a Catholic. At times, with the guards’ help, Thị could even slip out to church to receive the sacraments.

The prisoner turned his keepers into brothers.

From prison he sent a message to his wife:

“Take care to live in a way that pleases God, do your duty as a mother, and let us look forward to the day when the whole family is together again in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

He could not come home to care for his children or be with his wife. All he could do was entrust them to God and promise that they would meet again, in a place where there are no more goodbyes.

On October 24, 1860, the king handed down a sentence of death by strangling. On the way to the execution ground at An Hòa market, Thị cheerfully said goodbye to everyone. Then he was strangled.

His body was taken to Phủ Cam. Today his remains are kept at the Redemptorist church in Huế.

He was beatified on May 2, 1909, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is October 24.

Some partings are known to be final. Thị did not say farewell; he made a promise. For him, death was not the end of a family, only a time apart.

That is Christian hope at its simplest: a husband promising his wife and children that they will be together again. Perhaps they lived the rest of their lives holding that promise in their hearts.