Saint Philípphê Phan Văn Minh

Saint Philip Phan Văn Minh (born c. 1815 in Cái Mơn, Vĩnh Long province, Vietnam; died July 3, 1853, in Đinh Khao, Vietnam) was a priest, martyr, and saint of the Catholic Church. He was the youngest of 14 children born to Dominic Phan Văn Đức and Anna Tiêu. He studied at the seminary in Lái Thiêu. After the seminary closed, he traveled to Thailand and then to Malaysia. In 1838, he was sent by his bishop to Calcutta to assist in the compilation of a Latin-Vietnamese dictionary. He was ordained a priest in Vietnam in 1840. During a period of persecution, he was imprisoned in February 1853 and executed on July 3, 1853. He is the patron of the Vĩnh Long diocesan seminary. 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.