Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện (13 March 1906 – 13 May 2012) was a Vietnamese

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

bishop and the oldest of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

at 106 years of age. He was also one of the last living bishops to have served in

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

. Born in Cái Cồn, in the Sóc Trăng province of French Cochinchina, Thiện was ordained a priest on 20 February 1932. He was appointed the bishop of

Vĩnh Long Vĩnh Long () is a city and the capital of Vĩnh Long Province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Vĩnh Long covers and has a population of 147,039 (as of 2009). The name was spelled 永隆 ("eternal prosperity") in the former Hán Nôm writing syst ...

in November 1960 and received episcopal consecration in January 1961. He resigned that position in 1968 and was appointed a

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Hispellum Hispellum (modern Spello) was an ancient town of Umbria, Italy, north of Fulginiae, on the road between it and Perusia. History Hispellum is mentioned in Pliny StraboV.2.10, and Ptolemy's ''Geography'', but apparently by no earlier author. It ...

the same month. He became the oldest living Roman Catholic bishop on 6 October 2005, with the death of Bishop Ettore Cunial at age 99. Thiện died in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, France, on 13 May 2012, aged 106. France's

Géry Leuliet Géry-Jacques-Charles Leuliet (12 January 1910 – 1 January 2015) was a French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church and at the time of his death, was the oldest bishop of the Catholic Church, at 104 years of age. Leuliet was born in France and ...

then became the oldest living Catholic bishop."Mgr Gery Leuliet, doyen de l'épiscopat mondial"
''

La Croix La Croix primarily refers to: * ''La Croix'' (newspaper), a French Catholic newspaper * La Croix Sparkling Water, a beverage distributed by the National Beverage Corporation La Croix or Lacroix may also refer to: Places * Lacroix-Barrez, a muni ...

'', 15 May 2012

References

Sources

*
Bishop saved from rebels
, ''Spokane Daily Chronicle'', 9 November 1961 1906 births 2012 deaths People from Sóc Trăng province People of French Cochinchina 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Vietnam Participants in the Second Vatican Council Vietnamese expatriates in France Vietnamese centenarians Men centenarians Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishops {{Vietnam-RC-bishop-stub