Saint Étienne Théodore Cuenot (1802 - 1861) - Vietnamese Martyr Saint

Saint Étienne Théodore Cuenot was born on February 8, 1802 in the village of Le Bélieu, in the Diocese of Besançon, France. After the French Revolution of 1789, the Bélieu church was closed, so his parents secretly had him baptized in a barn next to their house.

His family was originally quite well-off, but due to war, crop failures, and plague, their finances suffered. In the winter of 1816, Étienne had to drop out of school. His mother took her wedding dress to a seamstress to have it remade into a coat for him. Touched by his mother's sacrifice, Étienne vowed that when he became a priest, he would have a beautiful dress like that made for her. On July 23, 1817, having met the educational requirements, Étienne joined the Seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and was ordained a priest on September 24, 1825.

On January 27, 1828, Étienne set sail from the port of Bordeaux for Asia. The following year, he arrived in Tonkin (northern Vietnam). He began an 83-day journey on foot into Cochinchina (southern Vietnam). Bishop Taberd assigned Étienne to the Lai Thieu Seminary to study Vietnamese, where he took the Vietnamese name Tri.

During his first four years there, Father Tri nearly died of tuberculosis. In the spring of 1833, as persecution intensified, the missionaries had to take refuge in Siam (Thailand) and then Singapore. On May 3, 1835, while in Penang, Bishop Jean Taberd ordained Étienne Cuenot as Coadjutor Bishop of Cochinchina.

After his ordination, Bishop Cuenot returned to Cochinchina under the name The. He hid for three years in An Ngai, Quang Nam province, before moving to the Go Thi parish. Given the vastness of the diocese, in August 1841 Bishop The convened the Go Thi Council on the 5th, 6th, and 10th to chart the course for pastoral activities. He also encouraged sending seminarians to Penang for training.

In 1850, Bishop The requested that the Holy See divide Cochinchina into two dioceses, simultaneously splitting it horizontally at the Gianh River to create the Diocese of Northern Cochinchina (Hue).

In 1854, although the situation was becoming increasingly dangerous, Bishop The decided to remain. However, he advised the priests and seminarians to temporarily relocate to Southern Vietnam to preserve the future.

On October 27, 1861, after celebrating Mass at Mrs. Luu's house, government troops surrounded and arrested Bishop The. The next day, he was taken to Binh Dinh and imprisoned in a cage. Mrs. Luu and two others were also arrested. They were all later executed.

Due to illness, Bishop The died in prison on November 14, 1861 during the reign of Emperor Tu Duc. By order, his body was beaten and thrown into the river.

The missionary Bishop Étienne Théodore Cuenot - The was beatified on May 2, 1909 and canonized on June 19, 1988.