Saint Martin Thọ

Martin Thọ (born c. 1787 in Kẻ Báng, Nam Định Province, Vietnam – died November 8, 1840, in Bảy Mẫu, Vietnam) was a Vietnamese martyr and a saint of the Catholic Church. His given name was Nho, but he was known by the local custom as Thọ, after his ninth son. Due to his integrity, Martin Thọ was chosen to serve as a tax collector. During the persecution of Christians in Vietnam, he was beheaded on November 8, 1840, alongside three priests—Joseph Nguyễn Đình Nghi, Paul Nguyễn Ngân, and Martin Tạ Đức Thịnh—and a lay Catholic, John the Baptist Cỏn. His feast day is November 24, as part of the group of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs. He was beatified by Leo XIII on May 27, 1900, and canonized by John Paul II on June 19, 1988, as one of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.