Saint Peter Đinh Văn Dũng: The Gentle Fisherman Who Offered His Life for the Name of Christ - The Saints and Martyrs of Vietnam
Saint Peter Đinh Văn Dũng was born in 1800 in Trung Đồng parish, Kẻ Mèn, Thái Bình province, belonging to the Diocese of Trung Đàng Ngoài. A simple and zealous fisherman, he lived as a pious, gentle, and devout lay believer, wholeheartedly educating his children and grandchildren in the Catholic faith.

In the spring of 1862, the persecution of the faith reached Đông Phú village. Mr. Dũng was arrested, taken to the prefectural headquarters, then exiled to Ngọc Chí village, and later transferred to Lương Mỹ village, Quỳnh Côi district. Though 62 years old, he was placed in a cangue, shackled hand and foot, and taken to the public tribunal multiple times to be interrogated and forced to trample on the Holy Cross. However, he always remained steadfast in professing his faith.

Seeing they could not sway him, the presiding mandarin ordered soldiers to take him to visit his family. Amidst shackles and the sound of his weeping wife and children, Mr. Dũng calmly comforted them: "Please do not cry, but rejoice, for I am offering my life for the name of Christ." Afterwards, he calmly bid them farewell and returned to prison.

In April 1862, he was taken to the non-Christian village of Lương Mỹ and imprisoned for another two months. Faced with his unwavering faith, the judge sentenced him to death by burning. The sentence was carried out on June 6, 1862, in Nam Định, during the reign of King Tự Đức. The witness of faith, Đinh Văn Dũng, was locked inside a bamboo cage and burned alive. His remains were buried immediately at the execution ground, and were later solemnly brought back by the faithful to be interred in the courtyard of the Đông Phú parish church.

The fisherman Peter Đinh Văn Dũng was elevated to the rank of Blessed by Pope Pius XII on April 29, 1951, and was canonized as a Saint by Pope John Paul II on June 19, 1988.