In the early morning of January 7 in 1796, four Annamese Catholics were drifting aimlessly at sea off the coast of the Portuguese colony of Macao. They anxiously waited for Western merchant ships passing by Macao in hopes of securing passage, while also fearing that the soldiers of the Bishop of Macao might capture them and imprison them or deport them back home. Fortunately, from afar, six English merchant ships appeared at once. The four Annamese rowed toward each ship in turn, asking the captains if they could come aboard and work without pay. Ragged from having slept at sea for many consecutive days, they failed to impress five captains in succession and had to approach the final ship to plead their case. Expecting yet another refusal, they were overjoyed when the captain of the Santa Anna agreed to take them to Portugal. Thus, at the last moment, they escaped the reach of the Bishop of Macao and set out on a six-month sea voyage to Lisbon - unaware that this journey would mark the final time they would ever see their homeland of Annam, their families, and their friends. 

This is the story of Father Philipphê (Philip) do Rosario Nguyễn Văn Bỉnh (1759–1833) and his three companions Joseph Trung, Thomas Nhân, and Francis Ngần - the last Catholics belonging to the Jesuit tradition in Vietnamese history. Their diplomatic mission in 1796 was closely tied to the notorious Garasa Schism, which shook the Catholic Church in Tonkin at the end of the 18th century. With the aim of petitioning Queen Maria I and Prince Regent João VI of the Portuguese Empire to appoint a Portuguese bishop who would represent the grievances of the Jesuit Christians, Father Bỉnh and his companions crossed the seas filled with hope, only to meet bitter disappointment at the end of 1807, when the Portuguese royal family fled Lisbon to Brazil to escape Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion, thereby ending all hope of securing a Portuguese bishop for Tonkin. When their goal of obtaining a bishop could not be fulfilled, and the Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See prevented him from returning home, Father Bỉnh spent the final 26 years of his life writing more than twenty works in three languages to express his thoughts and feelings in exile. Three of these works - namely the manuscripts Borg.tonch.17, Borg.tonch.18, and Borg.tonch.34 - were especially handwritten in the Nôm script and preserved in the collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia at the Vatican Library. 

In most of his writings, Father Bỉnh transcribed and translated Portuguese texts into Vietnamese using the Quốc ngữ script, as this was the linguistic legacy left to the Annamese Christians by Father Alexandre de Rhodes of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The fact that these three manuscripts were written in the Nôm script demonstrates their particular importance to Father Bỉnh, since the Annamese Catholics of that time were accustomed to reading Nôm texts rather than Quốc ngữ. According to Father Bỉnh, Quốc ngữ was merely a tool used by missionaries to learn Vietnamese quickly, whereas Nôm was truly “the national script.” That he copied only these three works in Nôm suggests that he regarded them as the greatest gifts he could offer to the Christians in Tonkin, should he not survive to return home. So what do these nearly 1,000 pages of Nôm text - Father Bỉnh’s intended gifts - contain? 

Manuscript Borg.tonch.18, also known as “Father Bỉnh’s Prayer Book” or “The Novena Prayer Book,” completed in 1815, is a collection of prayers commonly recited by Jesuit Christians daily, during Sunday Mass, and on major feast days. It also includes novenas for various saints and important liturgical celebrations that Father Bỉnh carefully translated from Portuguese. The first saint to be mentioned in this text is Saint Anne, traditionally regarded by the Catholic Church as the maternal grandmother of Jesus Christ. Father Bỉnh held special devotion to her because the ship that carried him from Macao to Lisbon bore her name, which he considered a great miracle. Next is Saint Joseph, patron saint of Annam since the time Father de Rhodes evangelized Tonkin more than a century before Father Bỉnh was born. The book also contains a short novena for Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Additionally, there is a novena dedicated to the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary - though not a major feast, it held deep personal significance for Father Bỉnh. Near the end of the book is a list of nearly one hundred indulgences granted to the Christians who visit churches in Rome and the Holy Land on designated feast days. Father Bỉnh also included a lengthy moral instruction addressing the education of children and the arrangement of marriages among the Christians in Tonkin. Beyond Nôm, the final pages include Latin prayers for priests to recite during novenas. The book concludes with a litany to Saint Francis Xavier, Father Bỉnh’s favorite saint, along with his final wishes regarding the return of his writings to the Christians in Tonkin. An appendix describes the Holy Temple of Jerusalem and miracles from the time of Christian persecutions in the Roman Empire.

Manuscript Borg.tonch.17, titled “Exhortations on Attending Mass and Saintly Stories,” completed in 1818, continues the work of manuscript 18. According to Father Bỉnh, the original manuscript grew too long when bound, so he separated about 300 remaining pages into a new volume - resulting in manuscript 17. Although it is framed as an exhortation to attend Mass regularly, the manuscript is largely composed of saintly tales and miracle stories drawn from both Scripture and real life. It is structured in three main parts. The first explains the solemnity of the Mass, though it includes many miracle stories related to it to encourage the faithful. The second explains why attending Mass brings grace to both body and soul, but consists largely of diverse tales: miracles from the Old Testament, from hagiographies, from the New Testament, stories from nature and folklore, and missionary histories of the Jesuits in China and Tonkin. This diversity reflects Father Bỉnh’s characteristic narrative style - discursive and multi-thematic within a single topic. The final part explains the harms of neglecting Mass, again illustrated through miracle stories in which many Christians suffer grave consequences for their irreverence. Together, manuscripts 17 and 18 form a distinctive devotional work that combines formal prayers with engaging religious narratives to make spiritual teachings more accessible to the common faithful. 

Manuscript Borg.tonch.34, titled “Strong Reasons for Sustaining the Soul”, is in fact a long-lost work by the missionary Girolamo Maiorica (1591-1656), regarded as the Father of Catholic Nôm literature. Maiorica authored around fifteen Nôm works now preserved in the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France), but this particular text, “Strong Reasons for Sustaining the Soul” or “Meditação da Alma” in Portuguese, was not among them. Fortunately, Father Bỉnh copied the entire work into both Quốc ngữ (Borg.tonch.30) and Nôm (Borg.tonch.34), preserving its final trace. The opening section of manuscript 34 includes instructions for praying the Rosary and various prayers, likely copied from manuscript 18. The core of the manuscript consists of approximately 80 pages which are the full “Strong Reasons for Sustaining the Soul.” This work is modeled after the classic Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Maiorica encourages the Christians to meditate on one reflection per day, forming 31 meditations over a month. These meditations cover fundamental Catholic teachings about the state of the soul after death, strengthening the faith of believers. The final section includes devotions on the Seven Sorrows of Mary and the Nine Sorrows of Christ, attributed to Pope Saint Gregory. 

Among Father Bỉnh’s works, these three Nôm manuscripts hold the highest importance, as they were his top priority to send back to the Jesuit Christians in Tonkin. He devoted great effort to translating stories from Portuguese into Vietnamese and then transcribing them into Nôm so that the Jesuit Christians could read them. As for his Quốc ngữ works, he instructed fellow Jesuit brothers to copy them into Nôm for the same purpose. With the digitization of these manuscripts on the Digitizing Việt Nam platform under a complete Nôm and Quốc ngữ transcription, Father Bỉnh’s final wish, which is the return of his writings to his homeland for future generations to read, has finally been fulfilled. 

Readers are welcome to explore these three manuscripts in the collection “The Hán-Nôm Catholic Prayer Manuscripts of Philipphê Bỉnh” on Digitizing Việt Nam:

https://www.digitizingvietnam.com/en/our-collections/the-han-nom-catholic-prayer-philipphe-binh