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Vietnam 1615-1840: From the Origins to Minh Mang

The first Christian core group formed in Tourane, around a group of Japanese refugees fleeing persecution in their homeland. The Macao Jesuits started preaching in Cochin China and later in Tonkin.

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Alexander of Rhodes obtained many conversions, but he was expelled from both kingdoms and his Catechist, André Tung, was decapitated. The Church of Vietnam was subjected to persecution from the very first years it existed.

In 1670, the first French Apostolic Vicary, His Lordship Lambert de la Motte, ordained several Vietnamese priests and created a congregation of local nuns, called « Lovers of the Cross ». One century later, while the country was being devastated by the Tay-Son rebellion, one of his successors, His Lordship Pigneau de Béhaine, chose to support the cause of the legitimate inheritor, Nguyen-Anh and helped him militarily. In 1802, the latter, victorious, took power under the name of Gia-Long and unified the Empire. He left Christians alone but did not grant them the official recognition hoped for by the Apostolic Vatican. But the Church of Vietnam grew all the same, with its 200,000 followers, 180 local priests, more than 1,000 nuns « Lovers of the Cross », 25 French Missionaries and 28 Spanish Dominicans.
 

But when Gia-Long died in 1820, his son Minh-Mang, adopted a conservative, anti-Western, and thus anti-Christian policy. He denied new Missionaries access to the country and gathered the elders in Hue in order to watch over them. Those from Tonkin went into hiding, those in Cochin China relied upon the protection of the Viceroy, Lê Van Duyet, who was close to the former Emperor and very favorable towards Christians. But after he died in 1832, Minh-Mang felt free to start persecuting Christians once again.

Isidore Gagelin, Provicary of Cochin China, was executed in Hue on October 17, 1833, while in the South, the rebels, partisans of Lê Van Duyêt, took over Saigon. But when the imperial troups won back the Capital City, in 1835, they arrested the missionary Joseph Marchand, who was condemned, along with the leaders of the rebellion, to the torture of one hundred wounds, on November 30, 1835.
 

In Eastern Tonkin, between 1836 and 1838, the edicts of persecution decimated the Mission of Spanish Dominicans. His Lordship Delgado died in jail, his fellow Lordship Henares was decapitated, as well as Fathers Joseph Fernandez, Bernard Due, Vincent Yen and Pierre Tuan. They were all more than 70 years’ old or even 80 at the time. In Western Tonkin, which the Foreign Missions were in charge of, Jean-Charles Cornay was executed on September 20, 1837, François Jaccard and Pierre Borie in 1838. Along with them several Tonkin Catechists, Seminarists or priests also disappeared: François-Xavier Can, Thomas Thiên, Pierre Khoa, Vincent Diem, and many others. Executions continued until 1840.

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