Martyr 101 of 117 · Priest
Saint Peter Vũ Đăng Khoa
The shepherd who visited his flock by night
1790 – 1838 · Feast day November 24
Priest, from Thuận Nghĩa, Diễn Châu, Quỳnh Lưu, Nghệ An province · Vietnamese
By day Father Khoa hid in people’s homes. By night he quietly visited the Catholic communities. For eight years as a parish priest in a time of persecution he lived like a shadow, so that the faithful would not go without the sacraments.
The third son of Thuận Nghĩa
Peter Vũ Đăng Khoa was born in 1790 in the village of Thuận Nghĩa, Nghệ An province. He was the third son in his family, gentle and bright.
He went to help the priests, then studied at the seminary of Vĩnh Trị and later at the school at Hướng Phương. In 1820 he was ordained a priest.
Parish priest of Kinh Nhuận
He served many parishes in Ninh Bình, Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh. In 1829 he was appointed parish priest of Kinh Nhuận.
Then came the years of persecution. He had to lodge in people’s homes and visit the communities at night: hidden by day, on the road by night. Along dark paddy dikes and unlit village lanes he went from one Catholic community to the next to say Mass, hear confessions and give comfort. People remembered him as gentle but outspoken.
July 2, 1838
On July 2, 1838, he was arrested at Lễ Sơn along with the two young men traveling with him. All three were taken to Đồng Hới.
The mandarin questioned him about other priests and their hiding places. He said nothing.
But one of the young men broke under torture and gave away the hiding place of Father Pierre Dumoulin-Borie (Cao) and others. Many more were arrested.
Father Khoa must have been heartbroken, but he did not blame the young man. Who could blame someone beaten past what he could bear?
“How could I abandon God?”
The mandarin tried to persuade him to give up his faith. He replied:
“I am a priest, a shepherd; how could I deny God, how could I abandon God?”
If the shepherd abandons God, whom will the flock follow? Father Khoa knew he did not live for himself alone.
Fellow prisoners
In the prison of Đồng Hới he was with Father Cao, Father Vincent Nguyễn Thế Điểm, already seventy-seven, the catechist Peter Nguyễn Khắc Tự, and the parish elder Anthony Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh. A bishop-elect, two priests, a catechist and a parish elder: a small group praying together through the months of waiting for their sentence.
November 24, 1838
On November 24, 1838, under Emperor Minh Mạng, Father Peter Khoa was strangled outside the citadel of Đồng Hới, on the same day as Father Cao and Father Điểm.
His body made a long journey, by way of Mỹ Hương and Kẻ Gốm, and finally came back to Thuận Nghĩa, his home village.
He was beatified on May 27, 1900, and canonized on June 19, 1988. His own feast day is November 24.
Gentle yet outspoken
Father Khoa was gentle but not weak, outspoken but not harsh. He named no one, yet he did not blame the one who did.
And after a long journey he came back to Thuận Nghĩa, like a son coming home after years away. The shepherd who had walked through the night to find his flock was carried home in the end by his flock.
Biography on the website of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam ↗