ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN NOVEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 21st of November
O glorious Virgin, Mother of God, blessed among all nations, worthy of praise and the greatest of praise, intercede for me with thy beloved Son. O honoured Lady, Mother of the King of Angels and Archangels, assist and deliver me from every difficulty and danger.
O Blossom of the Patriarchs, the Virgins and the Angels, Hope of Glory, Beauty of Virgins, Admiration of the Angels and Archangels, remember me, and forsake me not, I beseech thee, at the terrible hour of my death. O Star of the Sea, Gate of Heaven, Temple of God, Palace of Jesus Christ, Harbour of Safety, Power of all Nations, Pearl of all Sweetness, Hope of the Faithful; O Queen who shelters the guilty, who surpasses in radiance the Virgins and the Angels, thy presence gives joy to all the hosts of Heaven.
Therefore, O Mother of Mercy, I place in the protection of thy holy hands my going out, my coming in, my sleeping, my waking, the sight of my eyes, the touch of my hands, the speech from my lips, the hearing of my ears, so that in everything I may be pleasing to thine own beloved Son. Amen.
OUR LADY OF LA VANG
The very heart of the Marian faith and spirituality in Vietnam is the Shrine of La Vang… It remembers the Apparition of the Virgin Mary in the forest near Quang Tri to a group of Vietnamese Catholics fleeing from the persecutions of King Canh Minh toward the end of the 18th century.
Today the Shrine of ‘Our Lady of La Vang’ is one of the most well-known and visited places in Asia. The Shrine of La Vang, which belongs to the Archdiocese of Hue, in central Vietnam, is where the Virgin appeared, for the first time in 1798, to comfort the Vietnamese Christians in their extreme sufferance.
The name ‘La Vang’ comes from the forest, where in the past a few small Christian communities around the area used to go to collect wood.
HISTORY
Toward the end of the 18th century, present Vietnam used to be divided in two kingdoms: the North, with Hanoi as its capital, where the Trinh family ruled, and the South, with Hue as its capital, ruled by the Nguyen family. The rulers of the South, in the attempt to occupy also the North, asked France for help. A group of cultured men, calling themselves ‘Van Than’, opposed the French intervention and endorsed the proclamation of Quang Trung as king of the South. The new king actually conquered the North, but he died prematurely shortly afterwards.
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
In August 1798, the collaborators of the young king decreed a persecution against the Christians, which the Van Than considered responsible for the French presence in Vietnam. The Christians took shelter in the forests of La Vang, about 60km from Hue, heedless of the danger of wild beasts, hunger and diseases. To encourage one another, they used to gather every day around a large tree and say the rosary to the Virgin Mary.
ONE DAY, THE BLESSED VIRGIN APPEARED
One day, with two angels at her sides, with Baby Jesus in her arms, the Virgin appeared, reassuring the Christians that she had heard their prayers, and promising them protection and healing for their troubles. The Lady also gave them a sign: they would eat and be satisfied of the ferns and wild plants of the jungle.
"ANYONE WHO COMES TO PRAY IN THIS PLACE SHALL SEE HIS PRAYERS FULFILLED"
Other Apparitions came after this one and the Virgin again comforted the Vietnamese faithful and taught them how to recognise and use some of the surrounding plants as medical herbs. She also told them that from that day on, anyone who would come here to pray would be rewarded with many graces. In particular, she said: ‘Be assured, endure good-heartedly pains and sorrows. I have already fulfilled your prayers. From now on, anyone who comes to pray in this place shall see his prayers fulfilled’.
More, however, and even more violent persecutions, raged against the Vietnamese in the mid 19th century: the devotion to the Virgin remained one of the crucial points of the faith of the martyrs, who often presented themselves for torture with the rosary around their necks. About 100,000 Christians were said to have died during those persecutions.
100.000 CHRISTIANS DIED DURING THOSE PERSECUTIONS
After the first Apparition in August 1798, the Virgin continued to appear to the people of the place many other times during persecutions, establishing such a devotion that many Vietnamese Catholics, captured and sentenced to be burnt alive for their faith, asked to be killed in the place of the Apparitions, at La Vang.
A SMALL WOODEN CHURCH ROSE IN THE AREA
In 1886 the persecutions stopped. As soon as peace was restored, a small wooden church rose in the area, becoming the destination of many pilgrimages. Later the persecutors burnt down the small church of the Virgin of La Vang. It was substituted by a stone church, solemnly inaugurated in 1901 by Fr Morineau, of the Foreign Missions of Paris, before a huge number of faithful, nearly twelve thousand people, who rejoiced at hearing the Lady of La Vang proclaimed ‘Patron of the Vietnamese Catholics’.
THE CHAPEL WAS SOON TOO SMALL
This chapel, however, was soon too small to contain the ever-growing flow of devotees. More chapels were built, one after the other: the last one, with its three small bells, was blessed in 1928 by Msgr. Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Allys, the Apostolic Vicar of Hue.
A few years later, and precisely in 1934, the Holy Virgin appeared once again, this time to two women of the place, pagans, to show them the way to a spring where they could immerse the sick son of one of the two women, who was immediately healed.
On April 13, 1961, the Bishops of southern Vietnam (divided from northern Vietnam from the 18th parallel), gathered in Hue and pronounced a vow to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They promised to consecrate a church to her as soon as the circumstances would allow it and asked the Virgin for freedom for the Church and peace for the two parts of the Country. Furthermore, with their Collegial Letter dated August 8th of the same year, they recognised La Vang as ‘National Marian Centre’.
NATIONAL MARIAN CENTRE
A few days later, on August 22, Pope John XXIII raised the church of La Vang to the status of Minor Basilica, a joy to the hearts of all Vietnamese Catholics. However, the tormented events of the Shrine did not end, as if it were involved in the sorrowful history of the Vietnamese Catholic people. In 1961 and in the following years the Shrine was enlarged and enriched with further works. The different constructions of La Vang, however, were completely destroyed in 1972, during the war between the North and the South. Only after the reunification of the Country (April 30, 1975), the Bishops of entire Vietnam, gathered in Hanoi on May 1, 1990, solemnly renewed the recognition of La Vang as ‘National Marian Centre’.
MANY THOUSANDS OF PILGRIMS
Every year many thousands of pilgrims go to La Vang to worship the Heavenly Lady, the beloved ‘Patron of the Vietnamese Catholics’. The very Marian heart of Vietnam, the Shrine, is the physical sign of the sturdy faith of this little flock. In the course of two centuries, bishops, priests, religious and lay people have gone to this ‘house of Mary’, to listen to a message of hope that encouraged them to bear powerful witness of Christian life even in the face of adversities.
MARY, THE MOTHER OF ALL PEOPLE
Mary, the Mother of all people, has an important place in the Vietnamese Catholic Church. During the terrible war in Vietnam, the Catholics of Vietnam addressed their pleas for peace to her, because they know and revere Mary especially with her title ‘Our Lady of Peace’. In every home, the statue of the Virgin has a place of honour, and during the month of May, people organise processions through the cities and the villages, though religious activities are still subject to severe restrictions.
GOVERNMENT RESTRICTIONS
In 1998, for the 200th anniversary of the first Apparition, the Marian Shrine of La Vang was the destination of more than 200,000 pilgrims, who challenged the restrictions enforced by the government. The Vietnamese authorities advised people against setting out on the journey for ‘security reasons’, and they warned the travel agencies not to sell tickets to pilgrims. The Vietnamese pilgrims, however, were not discouraged, and they reached their beloved Shrine en mass.
MAY THE LORD FILL EVERYONE'S HEART WITH PEACE
As they go to Notre-Dame de La Vang, a place so dear to the Vietnamese Christians, the pilgrims entrust their sorrows, their hopes and their sufferance to Mary. Through Mary, they turn their hearts to God and intercede for their families and the entire people. They ask the Lord to fill everyone’s heart with feelings of peace, fraternity and solidarity, so that the people of Vietnam may grow in unity and build a more just and authentic world, founded on fundamental spiritual and moral values, where every human being is recognised for his dignity as a son of God, who may address freely, as a son, the Heavenly Father ‘rich in mercy’ (Eph. 2:4).
- Some sources give the feast day as August 15, August 22, November 22
(This article was published in “Christ to the World”, paper edition - International Review of Apostolic Experiences - English Edition Vol. 54, 2009, Number 2)
⬅️ Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions - Martyrs of Vietnam
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