Feastday: November 24
Birth: 1829
Death: 1861
Martyr of Vietnam. Born on November 21, 1829, and originally from the diocese of Poitiers, France, he entered into the Foreign Missions of Paris and was ordained in 1852. Sent to Vietnam two years later, he devoted his time to teaching in a seminary until his arrest and brutal martyrdom. Theophane was chained in a cage for months and then beheaded. He was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
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French Catholic missionary (1829–1861) | This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (August 2018) |
Remains of Théophane Vénard at the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
Jean-Théophane Vénard (November 21, 1829 at Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet, Diocese of Poitiers, France – February 2, 1861 in Tonkin, Vietnam) was a French Catholic missionary to Indo-China. He was a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. He was beatified in company with thirty-three other Catholic martyrs, most of whom were natives of Tonkin, Cochin-China, or China. Pope John Paul II canonized him, with nineteen other martyrs, in 1988.
Life
Théophane Vénard.
Théophane Vénard studied at the College of Doué-la-Fontaine, Montmorillon, Poitiers, and at the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions which he entered as a sub-deacon. Ordained a priest on 5 June 1852, he departed for the Far East on 19 Sept. After fifteen months in Hong Kong he arrived at his mission in West Tonkin (northern Vietnam). At the time, it was illegal to proselytise in Vietnam.
Shortly after Vénard's arrival a new royal edict was issued against Christians, and bishops and priests were obliged to seek refuge in caves, dense woods, and elsewhere. Vénard continued to exercise his ministry at night, and, more boldly, in broad day. On 30 November 1860, he was betrayed and captured. Tried before a mandarin, he refused to apostatize and was sentenced to be beheaded. He remained a captive until 2 February, and during this interval lived in a cage, from which he wrote to his family beautiful and consoling letters, joyful in anticipation of his crown. His bishop, Retord, wrote of him at this time: "Though in chains, he is as gay as a little bird".
On the way to martyrdom Vénard chanted psalms and hymns. To his executioner, who coveted his clothing and asked what he would give to be killed promptly, he answered: "The longer it lasts the better it will be". His head, after exposure at the top of a pole, was secured by the Christians and is now venerated in Tonkin. The body rests in the crypt at the motherhouse of the Paris Foreign Mission Society in Paris, France.
The cause of his beatification was introduced at Rome in 1879, and he was declared Blessed, May 2, 1909. He was canonized on June 19, 1988, by Pope John Paul II.
