Saint John Đoàn Viết Đạt

John Đoàn Viết Đạt was born in 1765 in the parish of Đồng Chuối, in the Hà Nam area. He lost his father as a child and lived with his mother.

He wanted to go and live at the presbytery and follow the path to the priesthood. But he was his mother’s support, and she did not yet consent. He waited patiently. Only at eighteen was he able to begin his studies. Then he entered the seminary, studied for many years, and at the beginning of 1798, at the age of thirty-three, he was ordained a priest.

A vocation that came late, after a long wait. But he did not give up.

He was sent to serve at Hảo Nho. He cared for the sick and taught the faithful. He himself was often ill, but he did not give up his work because of it. The new priest poured all his strength into the first months of his ministry.

In 1798, under the Tây Sơn, persecution broke out. The faithful took him up into the mountains to hide.

One night he came down from the mountains to celebrate Mass in the house of the parish elder Mai Lễ. On July 14, 1798, just as Mass ended, before the things for Mass could be cleared away, soldiers burst in.

The people of the house were interrogated. The faithful urged him to run. He could have run. But he said:

“Even if I escaped, it would bring harm on the whole village.”

He gave himself up. He was arrested together with a deacon and several community officials, and taken away.

For more than three months in prison, people remember him as always cheerful and gentle. He even asked the mandarin to reduce the beatings of those imprisoned with him. When the faithful came to visit, he comforted them:

“To suffer and to die for the faith is the greatest blessing of all.”

The mandarin promised to release him if he gave up his faith and stepped over the cross. He replied:

“If I stepped over the cross it would be shameful; the faithful would not accept me.”

Very plain, very Vietnamese words. He did not speak of lofty theology. He thought only of his people: how could he ever face them again?

It is also said that once, when soldiers tried to drag him across the cross, he threw himself face down on the ground, and the soldiers could not drag him at all.

Before the day of execution, a priest found a way into the prison to help him receive the sacraments.

On October 28, 1798, Father John Đạt was executed at the Chợ Rạ execution ground. He was thirty-three, not yet a full year a priest. His body was taken by boat to Phúc Nhạc.

He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is October 28.

Father Đạt waited a very long time to become a priest. Then he was a priest for less than a year. But in that short time he did everything a shepherd does: celebrated Mass, cared for the sick, did not abandon his village, comforted those who shared his fate, and kept the faith to the end.

A life is not measured in years, but in love. And Father Đạt loved to the full.