Saint Emmanuel Le Van Phung (1796 - 1859) - Vietnamese Martyr Saint

Saint Emmanuel Le Van Phung was born in 1796 in Dau Nuoc Village (Cu Lao Gieng), An Giang Province, in the town of Chau Doc. Due to his upright character and enthusiasm in taking care of communal affairs, Mr. Phung was entrusted by the parishioners to be elected as the village chief of Dau Nuoc (the village chief cooperated with the village head to oversee community work).

Thanks to his many virtues, Village Chief Phung mobilized the parishioners of the village to contribute their labor to rebuild a spacious village church and build a house for the Sisters of the Divine Word Order. He turned Dau Nuoc Village into a safe haven for missionaries and native priests.

Village Chief Phung wished to have a priest stay in Dau Nuoc Village to serve the parishioners. During major feasts, he found every way to invite priests to celebrate Mass or administer sacraments to the seriously ill. During epidemics, he rowed his boat to take priests everywhere to administer last rites to dying parishioners.

Seeing that religious activities did not cause public disorder, the district mandarins often gave Village Chief Phung advance notice so he had time to hide religious objects during search raids.

However, two gamblers named Nen and Mieu spotted and discovered that Father Jean Pernot-Dinh was staying at Village Chief Phung's house, and reported it to the governor of Chau Doc. On the morning of January 7, 1859, just after Fathers Pernot-Dinh and Doan Cong Quy finished celebrating Mass, they were arrested by the governor's troops. Village Chief Phung and 32 parishioners were also arrested and taken to Chau Doc. Here, the Village Chief calmly admitted to sheltering the priests, despite torture and persuasion.

The governor of Chau Doc sent the case to King Tu Duc, requesting permission to execute Village Chief Phung for the crime of harboring priests. On July 31, 1859, Village Chief Phung and Father Doan Cong Quy were led to execution at Cay Met in Cha Va hamlet. Before dying, he advised his family to forgive the informants and requested to be buried next to the parish priest. After 3 drum beats, Father Quy was beheaded, and Village Chief Phung was strangled. That evening, his family was allowed to take his body to bury in the Dau Nuoc village church.

Village Chief Emmanuel Le Van Phung was beatified on May 2, 1909 and canonized on June 19, 1988.