Father Peter of the Vietnamese Martyrs : Order of Friars Minor (Franciscan Friar)

Order of Friars Minor –  Father Peter Andrew Dung-Lac of the Vietnamese Martyrs, O.F.M.                                                                       Ordo Fratrum Minorum                                                                                                                     “Pax et Bonum”  –  “Peace and all Good”                                                                                                      “Prayer, Fraternity, Joy, and Service”                                                                                “Blessed is he among women.”   –  Brother Dominic Michael, fbp                                    “Repair My House which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” –  Jesus to St. Francis 

Founders:  Saint Francis of Assisi   (Seraphic Father)                                                                                                 Blessed Ordorico Matttiuzzi de Pordenone, O.F.M.  –  (“Apostle to the Chinese”)      a diplomatic missionary who ushered in an age of world peace by winning a harvest of souls                    **Father Maurice Bertin, O.F.M. –  a French missionary (Parisian) who founded this Vietnamese  Order of Friars with Hugolin Lemesre, O.F.M. and Bro. Jean-Marie Couden, O.F.M.

Places:  Assisi, Italy (St. Francis); Beijing, China (Bl. Odorico); Vinh, Vietnam (Father Bertin)

Years:  1209 A.D. (Italy); 14th Century circa 1325 A.D. (China); **1929 A.D. (Vietnam)

His Charism:  To be Vietnamese means inheriting the history of 4,000 years of being torn between suffering and poverty.  This Friar tackles the improbable in a land violently hostile to everything Christian.  He bridges heaven and earth with human harmony by witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the love, zeal, and courage that consumed St. Francis.  A true “universal brother”, Father Peter is a man of faith, of dialogue, of peace and reconciliation – a joyful contemplative in action who is enamored with the poor and crucified Christ.  This little brother lives the sign of holiness in his fraternity.  He is a “troubadour of Creation” choosing to stand with the powerless, marginalized, and underprivileged poor as did Jesus, the only Savior of the world.  This Franciscan Friar is engaged in everything from rice farming, field irrigation, drilling fresh water wells, and serving in slum areas, nursing homes, and leprosy camps, to preserving a flower farm from the ruins of the monastery at Da Lat for retreats.  He is a man who becomes prayer as he also lovingly receives the aborted fetuses from Catholic doctors and nurses in Saigon and reverently inters the cremains in a special chapel at the seminary.  Through him, with him, and in him, Franciscan love flows like a river of hope and healing.  His sweat, tears, and blood have watered the fields that have sprouted many other Franciscans and lovers of Jesus.  The truth of his vocation is that Life is never about “him”, but about being a channel of peace for all his “brothers” and the people he is privileged to serve.  † In 1939 A.D. Father Bertin built the Monastery of Cu Lao by himself as well as seminaries in Vinh, Thanh Hóa, and an Academy for Philosophy and Theology in Nha Trang. †