Title: The life of the Venerable Joseph Marchand : ...
Publisher: Dublin : M.H. Gill
Publication Date: 1886
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Near Fine
Edition: 1st Edition
xi, 128 printed pages; translated from the French with a preface by Lady Herbert. Contemporary, ink, gift inscription on verso of half-title page. Engraved contemporary bookplate on front paste-down endpaper. Some contemporary shelf numbers on verso of front free endpaper & half-title page. 11 x 16.5 cm Original embossed brick-red cloth. The upper cover with gilt lettering and image of crossed palms (symbol of martyrdom). Spine very slightly faded. Very slightly creased across the back cover. Near fine condition. Provenance: a gift to Scholastica's Priory, Atherstone. This narrative goes into great detail about Joseph Marchand (1803-35) who was a French missionary who sailed to Vietnam as a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. In 1833, he was asked to join the revolt led by Lê Van Khôi, son of the late governor of southern Vietnam Lê Van Duyet & who vowed to overthrow Emperor Minh Mang and replace him with My Duong, the son of Minh Mang's late elder brother Nguyen Phúc Canh, who were both Catholics. Khoi appealed to other Catholics to join in overthrowing Minh Mang and installing a Catholic emperor. They quickly seized the Citadel of Saigon in an uprising lasting two years. Marchand had declined the offer to join. But in 1835, he was arrested for supposedly being the leader of the Catholic rebel group and the six principal leaders, including Nguyen Van Tram, the leader of the hoi luong (who took the command of the revolt after Lê Van Khôi's death in 1834) & Luu Tín (the Chinese leader) were sent to Hue to be executed. Marchand, after extensive torture, had his flesh pulled from his bones by tongs (the torture of a thousand cuts), and was later made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1988. WorldCat locates only three copies, one each in Cambridge, Ireland and the USA. Not in the British Library. No other copy of this title found currently listed for sale. Bookseller Inventory # 5027