Saint Matthew Lê Văn Gẫm

Saint Matthew Lê Văn Gẫm (born c. 1813 in Gò Công, Vietnam; died May 11, 1847, in Chợ Đũi, Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam) was a martyr and a saint of the Catholic Church. Matthew Lê Văn Gẫm was born in Gò Công to parents Paul Lê Văn Lại and Mary Nguyễn Thị Nhiệm. He was the eldest of six children, with four brothers and one sister. With his parents' permission, he entered the seminary in Lái Thiêu at the age of 15, but his parents returned a month later to take him home. At the age of 20, Matthew married, and the couple had four children. He was arrested in mid-1846 and tortured in an attempt to force him to renounce his faith. He was executed on May 11, 1847. His feast day is November 24, as part of the group of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on May 27, 1900, and canonized by Pope John Paul II on June 19, 1988, as one of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.