Martyr 99 of 117 · Bishop
Saint Pierre Dumoulin-Borie (Cao), Bishop
A bishop never consecrated
1808 – 1838 · Feast day November 24
Bishop, from France · French
In the prison of Đồng Hới, Father Cao received the news: the Holy See had chosen him to be a bishop. He was only thirty. But he would never wear a bishop’s miter. Four months later he went to the execution ground. And there he still asked for what every shepherd asks: let me alone bear it; that is enough.
A letter left behind
Pierre Dumoulin-Borie was born in 1808 in France. His father died early. His mother stayed to raise her son, and let him follow his vocation.
In 1830 he was ordained a priest. Then he quietly left his family, leaving only a letter behind. Perhaps he did not have the courage to say goodbye face to face to the mother who had raised him alone. Some partings are too painful to put into words.
Twenty thousand sheep at Bố Chính
He came to Vietnam and took the Vietnamese name Cao. He was assigned to the district of Bố Chính, in today’s Quảng Bình, where there were about twenty thousand faithful.
In 1833 Emperor Minh Mạng’s ban on the faith came down. He had to keep changing where he lived. A young catechist, the catechist Peter Nguyễn Khắc Tự, always stayed close to him on his journeys.
Arrested at Xóm Trà
In 1838, Father Peter Vũ Đăng Khoa, a Vietnamese priest of the area, was arrested together with two young men. One of the two, unable to bear the torture, revealed where Father Cao was hiding.
He was arrested at Xóm Trà and taken to Đồng Hới. The catechist Tự asked to go with him.
The one who revealed his hiding place was not a bad person. Only a young man who could not bear the beatings. That story should be seen with compassion, not reproach.
A support in prison
In the prison of Đồng Hới, Father Cao was held with two Vietnamese priests, Father Vincent Nguyễn Thế Điểm, already seventy-seven, and Father Peter Vũ Đăng Khoa, along with the catechist Peter Tự and the parish elder Anthony Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh.
Father Cao was the youngest of the priests, yet he became the spiritual support of everyone. He helped answer when the mandarin questioned them, prayed with his brothers, and held up those who were losing heart.
On July 31, 1838, he was appointed bishop. But he was in prison. No one could consecrate him.
“A hundred times no”
Many times the mandarin tried to persuade him to step over the cross. He replied:
“It cannot be; a hundred times no. As for me, let the authorities do what they will, but let me alone bear it; that is enough.”
“Let me alone bear it.” He was not worried for himself. He was worried for his fellow prisoners, and for the faithful who might be implicated. He wanted every torment to fall on him alone.
November 24, 1838
On November 24, 1838, Father Pierre Dumoulin-Borie (Cao) was beheaded at Đồng Hới. On the same day, Father Điểm and Father Khoa were strangled. Father Cao was thirty.
In 1842 his body was reburied in the chapel of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is November 24.
A shepherd without miter or staff
Father Cao was never consecrated a bishop. But in the prison of Đồng Hới he did exactly what a bishop does: caring for his brothers, supporting the weak, ready to sacrifice himself for his flock.
You do not need a miter and a staff to be a shepherd. Only a heart ready to say: let me alone bear it.
Biography on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam ↗