Martyr 90 of 117 · Priest
Saint Jacinto Castañeda (Gia)
Expelled from China, he stopped in Vietnam
1743 – 1773 · Feast day November 7
Priest, from Spain · Spanish
Father Castañeda was arrested in China and expelled from that country. Someone else might have gone home. But he only changed direction. He came to Tonkin, learned Vietnamese, and stayed until his death.
From Spain to China
Jacinto Castañeda was born in 1743 in Xàtiva, Spain. He entered the Dominican Order, was sent to Manila to study, and was ordained a priest on June 2, 1765.
He was sent to China. After a few years of service, while out visiting the sick, he was arrested. He was expelled by way of Macau.
Father Gia in Tonkin
On January 22, 1770, he arrived in Tonkin. He learned Vietnamese at Trung Linh and took the Vietnamese name Gia. Then he carried on his work: teaching and visiting the sick in the Phú Thái area.
Being expelled from one country did not put out his zeal. He simply found another place to keep serving.
The last journey to anoint the sick
On July 11, 1773, he was on his way to give the Anointing of the Sick to a sick man. In the village of Gia Đạo, he and his helper were surrounded by soldiers.
They ran into a house in the village. But the owner of the house went and reported them to the mandarin for a reward.
How strange: in China he was arrested while visiting the sick. In Vietnam he was arrested on his way to anoint the sick. Arrested twice, both times on his way to those who were ill.
“I have no money”
The prefect demanded a ransom of three thousand strings of cash, a very large sum. He answered:
“If you want to release me, then release me, but I have no money. I am ready to endure every hardship, even death.”
No complaining, no pleading. Only a simple fact: I have no money, and I am not afraid of death.
Before Lord Trịnh
He was taken to Phố Hiến, and then to Kẻ Chợ, that is, Thăng Long, to be tried by Lord Trịnh Sâm. There he took part in a debate about religion. It is said that the way he conducted himself won the admiration of Lord Trịnh himself.
But admiration did not mean release. The sentence was still pronounced.
Đồng Mơ, November 7, 1773
On November 7, 1773, Father Jacinto Castañeda (Gia) was beheaded at the Đồng Mơ execution ground. On the same day, a Vietnamese priest, Father Vincent Phạm Hiếu Liêm, also died. Father Gia was thirty.
His body was buried at Trung Linh, where he had learned his first words of Vietnamese.
He was beatified on May 20, 1906, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is November 7.
There is always another way
Father Gia lived in Vietnam for just over three years. But his story is that of a man who never gave up. Driven out of one place, he went to another. Arrested while visiting the sick, he kept on visiting the sick.
Some doors close in our lives. Father Gia reminds us: when one door closes, God has usually already opened another, if only we have the courage to step through.
Biography on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam ↗
