St. Joseph Marchand

Feastday: November 30
Birth: 1803
Death: 1835
Canonized: Pope John Paul II

Martyr of Vietnam. Born in Passavant, France, he joined the Missionary Seminary of Paris after ordination. Sent to Vietnam, he was arrested in Saigon and condemned by authorities; he was martyred with red-hot tongs. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988.

For the Belgian cyclist, see Joseph Marchand (cyclist). French missionary

Joseph Marchand (August 17, 1803 – November 30, 1835) was a French missionary in Vietnam and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. He is now a Roman Catholic saint, celebrated on the 30th of November.

Personal life

Joseph Marchand.

Marchand was born in Passavant, in the Doubs department of France. At the age of 25 he joined the Paris Foreign Mission, whose primary goal was (and still is) to evangelize countries in Asia.

Vietnam

In 1833, he was offered to join the Lê Văn Khôi revolt led by Lê Văn Khôi, son of the late governor of southern Vietnam Lê Văn Duyệt. He vowed to overthrow Emperor Minh Mạng and replace him with My Duong, the son of Minh Mạng's late elder brother Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh, who were both Catholics. Khoi appealed to other Catholics to join in overthrowing Minh Mạng and installing a Catholic emperor. They quickly seized the Citadel of Saigon in an uprising lasting two years. Marchand had declined the offer to joined.

In 1835, he was arrested for supposedly having been associated with the rebellion and later executed in Huế, subsequently becoming a Catholic martyr after having his flesh pulled from his bones by tongs (the torture of a thousand cuts).

Marchand was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988. His feast day is November 30 and his joint feast day with the Vietnamese Martyrs is November 24.