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06-04-2006, 09:24 PM
May 28
Saint Paul HẠNH
Lay Catholic
(1827-1859)
The Wheat Blooming
"This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29).
The preceding Gospel was fulfilled in the live of Saint Paul Hạnh.
Paul Hạnh was born in Tân Triều, Biên Hoà province, circa 1827. Older, with two of his brothers he moved to Chợ Quán, Sài gòn, to make a living in selling and buying. Many bad rumors were spoken of him. In his business, he had contacts with con artists who used to scam the weak and lonely. It appeared that he might have been a gang leader.
Nevertheless, the Gospels that he heard in his childhood never stopped blossoming inside him. Even he himself did not recognize it, God’s words still bloomed and waited for the right moment to bear fruit. He once witnessed a poor woman being robbed by some of his underlings; he intervened and made them return everything they took to the victim even though he knew that his heroism would result in misfortune. Wheat is ripe to be harvested...
Christian to the End
The persons against whom he intervened to rescue the woman now wanted revenge by the most ignominious method “double crossing.” They accused him as a Catholic and working for the French army. At the tribunal, he never admitted to be a traitor because in reality he never was. But when the mandarin asked: “Are you a Christian?” he admitted and even affirmed: “will be Christian until death.”
Throughout his time in jail, the mandarins tried to entice him to renounce faith. They then used the most inhuman methods allowed by King Tự Đức; they beat on his stretched body; they used forceps to pinch his thighs and hot irons to burn his flesh to make him admit to the accusation and to walk over the cross. However all those savage tortures did not deter him. He constantly affirmed: “I am a Christian, I will never renounce my faith.”
The Aromatic Flower
On 5/28/1859, Paul Hạnh was beheaded at Chí Hoà when he was only 32 years old. The body of the martyr was buried in Chợ Quán.
Pope Pius X elevated the witness Paul Hạnh with a live as “the purple and aromatic flower”[1] (http://www.gpnt.net/diendan/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=14#_ftn1):
“There are purple flowes growing wild by the side of the road until trampled on by passerbys, they hương thơm. Paul Hạnh really was a flower concealed on the curb of the Church until crushed in the persecution emitting its gragrance sending us into ecstasy...
Amidst a city infected with jealousy and degradation, unjust deceits and miseries, all were waiting for flowers signaling a new spring bringing fresher air. The flower Paul Hạnh had emitted its fragrance with the help of divine strength making those who detested the cold winter of sin and had deep within them the picture of an eternal spring... will see in their hearts a mysterious joy and great hope for the future...”
-----
[1] Martyrologio Oriental pp. 253-255
as described by Salvatierra on the Spanish magazine ABC of 2/14/1940.
Hoàng Tôn Thất
Saint Paul HẠNH
Lay Catholic
(1827-1859)
The Wheat Blooming
"This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29).
The preceding Gospel was fulfilled in the live of Saint Paul Hạnh.
Paul Hạnh was born in Tân Triều, Biên Hoà province, circa 1827. Older, with two of his brothers he moved to Chợ Quán, Sài gòn, to make a living in selling and buying. Many bad rumors were spoken of him. In his business, he had contacts with con artists who used to scam the weak and lonely. It appeared that he might have been a gang leader.
Nevertheless, the Gospels that he heard in his childhood never stopped blossoming inside him. Even he himself did not recognize it, God’s words still bloomed and waited for the right moment to bear fruit. He once witnessed a poor woman being robbed by some of his underlings; he intervened and made them return everything they took to the victim even though he knew that his heroism would result in misfortune. Wheat is ripe to be harvested...
Christian to the End
The persons against whom he intervened to rescue the woman now wanted revenge by the most ignominious method “double crossing.” They accused him as a Catholic and working for the French army. At the tribunal, he never admitted to be a traitor because in reality he never was. But when the mandarin asked: “Are you a Christian?” he admitted and even affirmed: “will be Christian until death.”
Throughout his time in jail, the mandarins tried to entice him to renounce faith. They then used the most inhuman methods allowed by King Tự Đức; they beat on his stretched body; they used forceps to pinch his thighs and hot irons to burn his flesh to make him admit to the accusation and to walk over the cross. However all those savage tortures did not deter him. He constantly affirmed: “I am a Christian, I will never renounce my faith.”
The Aromatic Flower
On 5/28/1859, Paul Hạnh was beheaded at Chí Hoà when he was only 32 years old. The body of the martyr was buried in Chợ Quán.
Pope Pius X elevated the witness Paul Hạnh with a live as “the purple and aromatic flower”[1] (http://www.gpnt.net/diendan/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=14#_ftn1):
“There are purple flowes growing wild by the side of the road until trampled on by passerbys, they hương thơm. Paul Hạnh really was a flower concealed on the curb of the Church until crushed in the persecution emitting its gragrance sending us into ecstasy...
Amidst a city infected with jealousy and degradation, unjust deceits and miseries, all were waiting for flowers signaling a new spring bringing fresher air. The flower Paul Hạnh had emitted its fragrance with the help of divine strength making those who detested the cold winter of sin and had deep within them the picture of an eternal spring... will see in their hearts a mysterious joy and great hope for the future...”
-----
[1] Martyrologio Oriental pp. 253-255
as described by Salvatierra on the Spanish magazine ABC of 2/14/1940.
Hoàng Tôn Thất