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| Saint Domingo Henares, Pray for us ! |
⛪ Saint of the Day : June 25
⛪ Other Names :
• Dominic Henares • Domingo Henares
⛪ Memorial :
25 June
24 November as one of the Martyrs of Vietnam
⛪ Born :
19 December 1765 at Baena, CΓ³rdoba, Spain
⛪ Died :
• Beheaded on 25 June 1838 in Nam Γinh, Vietnam
• Relics enshrined in Bui-Chu, Vietnam
Died in Tonkin (Vietnam) in 1838; beatified in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII; they may be included in the list of those canonized as Martyrs of Vietnam. Nearly 100 years after the death of Blessed Peter Sanz, two more Dominicans died for the faith, one of whom is celebrated today. Bishop Dominic Henares and the tertiary catechist Francis Chien died together with many others during the Annamite persecution.
Bishop Henares was born in Spain in 1765. He became bishop- coadjutor to Blessed Ignatius Delgado in 1803. In 1838, Bishop Henares, Bishop Ignatius Delgado, the apostolic-vicar of Tonkin, and Francis Chien were captured during a persecution stirred up by the mandarin. The prelates and a young priest had been hidden in the village of Kien-lao, and were accidentally betrayed by a little child who was cleverly questioned by a pagan teacher searching for the foreigners.
Alarmed at the sudden activities, the captors of Bishop Delgado put him into a small cage which was locked around him, and then put into jail with criminals. Delgado was tortured but refused to hint at the location of the others and was eventually killed. The young priest escaped.
Bishop Henares was captured at the same time. He had hidden himself in a boat, and the nervousness of the boatmen gave him away. Five hundred soldiers were detached to bring in the two dangerous criminals--the bishop and his catechist. They, too, were questioned endlessly. Two weeks after the death of Bishop Delgado, Henares was led out and beheaded in company with Chien.
The relics of all three martyrs were recovered in part, and were honorably buried by the next Dominicans to come on the scene-- Bishop Hermosilla and his companions, who would, as they knew, also be the next to die. Many of the records of these brave men were lost or deliberately destroyed, and many of them--we hope--may still be found in various neglected spots which war and trouble have caused to be overlooked (Benedictines, Dorcy).
