Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang completes procedures to receive Bishop Lambert de la Motte’s relics on June 15 in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: tgpsaigon.net)
By UCA News reporter, Ho Chi Minh City
June 20 2022
French Bishop Pierre Lambert de la Motte’s relics have been moved to an old chapel in Ho Chi Minh City.
Catholics in a southern archdiocese of Vietnam were reminded of the great contributions of their first bishop as they gathered to honor his relics.
The relics of the late French Bishop Pierre Lambert de la Motte were moved from the Cho Quan Lovers of the Holy Cross congregation’s motherhouse to an old chapel in the compound of St. Joseph Major Seminary in Ho Chi Minh City on June 15.
Bishop Joseph Do Manh Hung of Phan Thiet along with priests, nuns and members of the Lovers of the Holy Cross Association for laywomen accompanied the relics, which were received by Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang of Ho Chi Minh City.
Archbishop Nang, deputy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam, and three bishops concelebrated a special Mass to mark the 343rd anniversary of the first bishop’s death.
“Today we place his relics in the chapel of the seminary where priests are formed as he wished. We pray for him and remember him as a great leader of the Catholic Church in Vietnam,” Archbishop Nang said.
Bishop Lambert established the local clergy, Lovers of the Holy Cross congregations and lay associations. “He worked at full stretch to bring the Good News to our nation, so we should appeal to him to pray for us to maintain the spirit of his evangelization,” he said.
“He showed his deepest wish that he gave up all things and only retained God, souls and evangelization work”
Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham of My Tho said Bishop Lambert was born in an aristocratic family, received a first-class education and worked as a judge when he was only 22 years old. However, he was completely different from the rich young man in the Bible as he gave up all things and closely followed God in his priestly vocation.
The secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam said that Bishop Lambert signed all his properties over to training priests in Vietnam and providing pastoral care to local people.
“He showed his deepest wish that he gave up all things and only retained God, souls and evangelization work,” he added.
Bishop Hung recalled that in 2003 Cardinal Archbishop Michael Michai Kitbunchu of Bangkok offered two urns containing Bishop Lambert’s bones teeth and limbs to sisters from Vietnam who attended the special ceremonies marking the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Lovers of the Cross congregation in Chanthaburi, Thailand.
One urn was placed at the Cho Quan Lovers of the Holy Cross sisters’ motherhouse, while the rest is kept by Lovers of the Holy Cross sisters in Qui Nhon.
Born in 1624 in a family with seven siblings, Lambert was ordained a priest in 1655 and named the first vicar apostolic of Dang Trong in 1659
Bishop Hung said it is right that both Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese and Qui Nhon Diocese are separated from the Apostolic Vicariate of Dang Trong (South Vietnam) led by Bishop Lambert.
Born in 1624 in a family with seven siblings, Lambert was ordained a priest in 1655 and named the first vicar apostolic of Dang Trong in 1659. Due to religious persecution in Vietnam, he was based in Ayutthaya of Thailand and trained priests from China, Thailand and Vietnam.
He ordained the first Vietnamese priest in 1668 and paid three pastoral visits from 1669 to 1676 to Dang Trong and Dang Ngoai (North Vietnam), which was run by Bishop François Pallu. He established the first Lovers of the Holy Cross congregation in Dang Ngoai in 1670 and another one in Dang Trong the following year.
He ordained 15 Vietnamese priests before he died on June 15, 1679, in Ayutthaya and was buried in St. Joseph Church.
Vietnam bishops decided to open the cause for the canonizations of Bishops Lambert and Pallu in 2018. Archbishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hanoi and Bishop Hung are assigned to prepare documents of Bishops Pallu and Lambert respectively. – UCA News
