Saint Francis Xavier Hà Trọng Mậu

Francis Xavier Hà Trọng Mậu (also recorded as Mận) was born in 1790 in the village of Kẻ Diền, Thái Bình province. He was a catechist, joined the Dominican Third Order, and helped Father Peter Nguyễn Văn Tự in the parish of Kẻ Mốt.

He taught the catechism, looked after parish affairs, and accompanied the priest through the years of persecution under Emperor Minh Mạng.

On June 29, 1838, soldiers surrounded Kẻ Mốt and arrested Father Tự. Mậu escaped. But he did not flee far. He went looking for news of the priest, and asked to stay for a while in the house of a man who was not a Catholic.

The owner of the house reported him to the mandarin for a reward. He was arrested and taken to Bắc Ninh. There he met Father Tự and the others who had been arrested.

Before the provincial administrator, he declared plainly:

“Your Excellency, I am a catechist, a trusted disciple of the priest Tự.”

Father Tự was worried for him. He knew that such a statement would make the charge heavier. He advised him not to give his full background. But Mậu said to the priest:

“Father, please accept me as your disciple, so that I may die for the faith together with you and keep my faith whole.”

The teacher wanted to protect his disciple. The disciple wanted to go with his teacher. Two hearts loving each other in two different ways.

The mandarin saw that Mậu was educated and knew medicine, and tried to tempt him: give up your religion, and you will be made an official, or allowed to go home and practice as a physician. He answered:

“Thank you, Your Excellency, but I dare not step over the face of my God.”

Courteous, gentle, but unshakable. In 1838 he was given sixty strokes of the rod for refusing to step over the cross.

Father Tự was beheaded in September 1838. Mậu remained in the prison of Bắc Ninh with four others: the catechist Dominic Bùi Văn Úy, Augustine Nguyễn Văn Mới, Thomas Nguyễn Văn Đệ and Stephen Nguyễn Văn Vinh.

Mậu, the eldest, became the mainstay of the group. He helped them with their answers at interrogations, prayed with them, and found ways to keep the Third Order way of life even in prison. He wrote to two priests outside:

“The four brothers and I often fast and abstain from meat as the rule of the order teaches...”

The letter also admits honestly that they could not always keep the fast as they wished. It makes the prison feel real: men full of resolve, but with bodies that had their limits.

The five brothers also helped many fellow prisoners to be baptized right there in prison.

On December 19, 1839, the catechist Francis Xavier Mậu and his four brothers were strangled at the Cổ Mễ execution ground. His body was taken to Hương La.

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

Mậu was the eldest brother among the five martyrs of Cổ Mễ. He stood firm himself, and kept the whole group firm. Through more than a year of imprisonment, he turned the prison into a small community, with prayer, fasting and baptism.

And he did not let his teacher go alone. He asked to be his disciple, to the very end.