![[Saint Theophane holy card]](saintt66.jpg "12kb jpg detail from an antique French Saint Theophane Vernard holy card, artist unknown; please do not write to ask about the image")
2 February formerly 6 November formerly 4 December 24 November as one of the Martyrs of Vietnam
Christians in the area were being persecuted by order of the ruler Minh-Menh. Just before Theophan's arrival, new anti-Christian orders had forced priests and bishops to go into hiding in forests and caves. Father Venard, whose health had never been good, suffered terribly, ministering to his flock by night and, when he could find a secure location, by day for nearly four years. Betrayed by an ostensible parishioner, he was arrested on 30 November 1860. Tried for his faith, he was given ample opportunity to save himself by denying Christ; he declined. He was kept in a cage for several weeks prior to his execution, during which he wrote a series of joyful, consoling letters to his family. One of the Martyrs of Vietnam.
beheaded on 2 February 1861 at Tonkin, Vietnam his head was stuck on a pole as a warning to other, but was later recovered and preserved as a relic in Tonkin the rest of his body was sent back to his family, and is interred in the crypt of the Missions Etrangères in Paris
Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate Catholic Encyclopedia, by James Anthony Walsh Catholic Online Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson- Saint Theophane in a letter to his father just before his martyrdom