Joseph Marchand
Saint Joseph Marchand was a French missionary in Vietnam and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. He is now a Roman Catholic saint, celebrated on the 30th of November.Personal life
Marchand was born in Passavant, in the Doubs department of France. At the age of 25 he joined the Paris Foreign Mission, whose primary goal was to evangelize countries in Asia.Activist
In 1833, he joined the Lê Văn Khôi revolt led by Lê Văn Khôi, son of the late governor of southern Vietnam Lê Văn Duyệt. He vowed to overthrow Emperor Minh Mạng and replace him with My Duong, the son of Minh Mạng's late elder brother Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh, who were both Catholics. Marchand and Khoi appealed to other Catholics to join in overthrowing Minh Mạng and installing a Catholic emperor. They quickly seized the Citadel of Saigon in an uprising lasting two years.
In 1835, he was arrested and later executed, in Saigon, subsequently becoming a Catholic martyr after having his flesh pulled from his bones by tongs.
Marchand was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988. His feast day is November 30 and his joint feast day with the Vietnamese Martyrs is November 24.
