Our Family Vietnam History and Legacy

The Ho-Dinh

Mr. Dang's maternal side, the Ho-Dinh (Vietnamese: Hồ Đình), originally came from the Catholic town of Nho Lâm in Nghệ An province. They settled on the east side of Bác Vọng town, also known as Bác Vọng Đông in Thừa Thiên province, among other Catholic families. In 2010, the Bác Vọng Đông subset was renamed as Hồ Đình Hy village, in honor of the Catholic saint in the family. The Hồ Đình were wealthy traders and well-versed in commerce craft with surrounding ethnic people like the Champa and other people indigenous to the region[1].  Some of them achieved government post in trades and commerce[5]. The most notable figures in the family are:

• Michael Hồ Đình Hy (1808-1857): The Chief Superintendent of the Royal Silk Mill and a Fifth rank mandarin, he was martyred under Emperor Tự Đức at Nho Lâm. He was petitioned to the Vatican for sainthood in 1867 by Father Louis Pallard of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris. He was beatified in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1988 along with other 116 Vietnamese Martyrs.
• Joseph Bonnard Hồ Đình, FSC (1915-1998): a Lasallian Christian brother (Fratres Scholarum Christianarum) who counseled Mrs. Dang during the Trial of Dang Sy when the Buddhist witnesses were unable to testify at the trial on behalf of Major Dang. This prompted Dang Sy family to seek help abroad, specifically in the United States. He taught at Lasalle Taberd in Saigon during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. After the Fall of Saigon, he taught at La Salle University - Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and Calvert Hall College Highschool in Maryland.

Today, Nho Lâm no longer exists as a town, it has merged into a larger corporation.

Saint Michael Ho-Dinh Hy (Vietnamese:Micae Hồ Đình Hy).

 

Cannonization Ceremony for the 117 Vietnamese Holy Martyrs by Saint Pope John Paul II in 1988.

References:

1. The Persecutions of Annam: A History of Christianity in Cochin China and Tonking
2. The holiness of the church in the nineteenth century: saintly men and women
3. Butler's Lives of the Saints
4. A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West
5. Mandarins and martyrs: the church and the Nguyen dynasty in early nineteenth