Saint Emmanuel Lê Văn Phụng
Feast day: November 24
Saint Emmanuel Lê Văn Phụng, lay leader at Đầu Nước, a father who taught forgiveness, martyred 1859 (24/11).
Who is he?
Saint Emmanuel Lê Văn Phụng was a lay Catholic, a father of a family, and an ông trùm (also called ông câu), a man trusted by the people to look after the local Catholic community. He is one of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs, and a model for fathers and for the lay leaders who serve in parishes.
Life story
He was born in 1796 in the Catholic community of Đầu Nước, Cù Lao Giêng, an islet (a small island in a river) in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, now in An Giang province. He married, had sons and daughters, and lived an honest life, eager to serve the community. The people of the parish trusted him and chose him as their ông trùm.
He cared for the parish as he cared for his own home: he rebuilt the church, built a house for the sisters to live in, and helped the priests find safe places to hide. Under King Tự Đức, anyone who sheltered a priest could be put to death, but he still opened his home to the priests so that the faithful could attend Mass and go to Confession.
At the end of 1858, someone reported that his house was hiding a missionary priest. On 7 January 1859, soldiers surrounded his house and arrested him, together with Father Peter Đoàn Công Quý and 32 Catholics, and took them to Châu Đốc. He was held in prison for about six months and questioned under torture many times to force him to give up his faith, but he stayed faithful.
He did not hate the man who had reported him. According to the accounts, he told his son: “My son, forgive. Don’t seek revenge on the man who reported me.” Before he died, he gave a picture of the cross to his daughter, Anna Nhiên. On 31 July 1859, he was executed in Châu Đốc, on the same day as Father Peter Quý. He was 63 years old.
In 1909, Pope Pius X declared him Blessed. On 19 June 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized him.
Why is he a saint?
Saint Emmanuel Phụng was not a priest or a religious. He became a saint right in his duties as a husband, a father and a servant of his parish. He dared to risk his life to protect the priests, kept his faith to the end, and followed the example of Jesus on the cross by asking forgiveness for those who harmed him (cf. Lk 23:34).
A lesson for you
- When someone hurts you or says bad things about you, ask God to help you forgive, and don’t try to get revenge.
- Help your parish: help clean the church, join the choir, serve at Mass, take part in children’s activities.
- Pray for your parents and grandparents, who handed the faith on to you.
Identifying marks
- A palm leaf: the palm branch martyrs hold in Vietnamese pictures and statues, a sign that he won the victory by daring to die for God.
- A wooden cross: before he died, he gave a picture of the cross to his daughter, as if handing on the faith to his children and grandchildren.
- An old man with white hair and beard, a black head wrap and a dark áo dài: the dignified clothes of an ông trùm, an elder who kept the faith in a 19th-century village of southern Vietnam.
- The rivers of Cù Lao Giêng, thatched houses and boats: his home was on an islet in the Tiền River, now in An Giang province.
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