Vicente Liêm of Peace (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''Vicente Liêm de la Paz'') (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

: ''Vinh Sơn Hòa Bình'') (1732 – November 7, 1773) was a

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includ ...

ese (present day northern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

) Dominican friar venerated as a

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

by 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 ...

. He was born Phạm Hiếu Liêm at Trà Lũ village, in the

phủ Fu () is a traditional administrative division of Chinese origin used in the East Asian cultural sphere, translated variously as commandery, prefecture, urban prefecture, or city. They were first instituted as a regular form of administrative di ...

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Nam Định Province Nam Định () ( vi, Tỉnh Nam Định) is a Provinces of Vietnam, province in the southern part of the Red River Delta region of northern Vietnam. It borders Ninh Bình , Ninh Bình province to the southwest, Hà Nam province to the northwest, T ...

in 1732 to Christian parents, Antôn and Maria Doãn, members of the Tonkinese nobility. When he fell gravely ill several days after his birth, he was baptized by Fr. Chien de Santo Tomas, taking the name of Vincent. He was later brought by his parents to a missionary center where he learned

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

. In 1738, King

Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mon ...

opened the

Colegio de San Juan de Letran The Colegio de San Juan de Letran, (transl: College of San Juan de Letran) also referred to by its acronym CSJL, is a private Catholic coeducational basic and higher education institution owned and run by the friars of the Order of Preachers i ...

and the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Migue ...

(UST) in the

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and Tonkinese students through a scholarship program. The Vicariate Apostolic of Eastern Tonkin, ran by Dominican friars at the time, decided to let Liêm and four other Tonkinese (Jose de Santo Tomas, Juan de Santo Domingo, Pedro Martir and Pedro de San Jacinto) study in the Philippines under this scholarship. Vicente took the

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and the

quadrivium From the time of Plato through the Middle Ages, the ''quadrivium'' (plural: quadrivia) was a grouping of four subjects or arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—that formed a second curricular stage following preparatory work in the ...

, now the equivalent of

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and

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

. He finished a degree of lector of humanities at Letran. He continued his collegiate education at the

while residing at Letran. In September 1753, after completing his studies at Letran, he entered the Dominican order, along with his three Tonkinese companions. A year later, they made their solemn professions. On January 28, 1755, he received the tonsure and minor orders at the Church of Sta. Ana. In 1758 Liêm was ordained priest under the Dominican order. On September of that year, he passed the examinations to hear confessions. On October 3, he started his journey back to his homeland and arrived on January 20, 1759. Upon arriving in his homeland, he was appointed professor in Trung Linh seminary. On October 2, 1773, he and his two assistants were arrested at "Co Dou". He and his assistants were beaten up, after which they traveled on foot to the village of recorded as "Dou Hoi." There he met another Dominican priest, the Spaniard Jacinto Castañeda.Butler's Lives of the Saints: February - Alban Butler, Paul Burns - 1998 Page 23- "In 1773 two more Dominicans, Jacinto Castaneda and Vincent Liem, lost their lives. Castaneda, a Spaniard, had served for several years as a missionary in the Philippines and in China before being deported to Vietnam, where he spent three ..." They were presented to the Vice Governor and to the Royal Minister. They were thrown to a cage for a night. The arrival of a High Minister prompted their transfer to Kien Nam, where the King held his court. While under detention, they still managed to preach Catholicism to the people. Later they were taken to Tan Cau, then to the house of Canh Thuy. Finally they were brought to the King where they were tried. Their trial led for the King to be angry and they were thrown to jail. After several days, the King brought down the guilty verdict with the penalty of

beheading Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

. The execution occurred on November 7, 1773. After the execution, the Christians who were present at the site carried away the bodies of de la Paz and Castañeda, where they were laid to rest at the town of Trung Linh in

Xuan Truong Xuan () may refer to: * Xuancheng, formerly Xuan Prefecture (Xuanzhou), Anhui, China ** Xuanzhou District, seat of Xuancheng and Xuan Prefecture ** Xuan paper, from Xuan Prefecture * Xuan (surname) Xuan () is the Mandarin pinyin romanization of ...

Nam Định Nam Định () is a city in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. It is the capital of Nam Định Province. The city of Nam Định is 90 km south-east of Vietnam's capital, Hanoi. From August 18–20 of each year, there is a festival he ...

. Several more Christian missionaries were put to death by the Tonkinese authorities. The process of

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

of de la Paz and Casteñeda, as well as other Dominican martyrs, was initiated through Vicar Apostolic Bishop Ignacio Delgado. They were beatified by

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

with his feast day on November 6.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

the Dominican martyrs along with a total of 117 martyrs in total on June 19, 1988, with the feast day of the group on November 24.

References

*Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Saints''. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. .

External links

St. Vicente Liem de la Paz at Catholic OnlineBiography of St. Vincente Liem de la Paz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paz, Vicente Liem de la 1732 births 1773 deaths Colegio de San Juan de Letran alumni University of Santo Tomas alumni Members of the Dominican Order Martyred Roman Catholic priests 18th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Vietnamese Roman Catholic saints People from Nam Định province

See also

References

External links