Saint Vincent Pham Van Duong (1821 - 1862) - Vietnamese Martyr Saint

Vincent Pham Van Duong, a farmer and tax collector, was born in 1821 in Ke Men region, Thai Binh province. He was married and had three children. Besides farming, he also worked as a village tax collector and maintained a strong Catholic faith, raising his children in that faith.

After Emperor Tu Duc issued the Phan sap edict in August 1861, at the end of September 1861, Pham Van Duong and many other Catholics were arrested and relocated to My Nhue village. For 9 months, he endured brutal torture but steadfastly refused to step on the Cross to renounce his faith. At the court, when asked why as a tax collector for the imperial court he wouldn't obey the king's order to abandon Catholicism, he replied: "Your Honor, I always obey the orders of the king and mandarins in righteous matters, but regarding the demand to abandon my worship of God, I cannot obey the king's order to deny my Lord."

On June 6, 1862, the farmer and tax collector Pham Van Duong was sentenced to be burned alive for disobeying the king's order to abandon Catholicism. The saint's remains were initially buried by Catholics at the place of his martyrdom, and later reburied at Saint Vincent's Church in Ke Men parish.

On April 29, 1951, the farmer and tax collector Pham Van Duong was beatified, and later on June 19, 1988, he was canonized.

The image appears to show a religious painting or illustration. It depicts a man in traditional Vietnamese clothing standing with his arms outstretched. He appears to be surrounded by flames, suggesting this is likely a depiction of Vincent Pham Van Duong's martyrdom by being burned alive. The painting style seems to be in a traditional East Asian religious art style, with somewhat stylized figures and a flattened perspective.