Biography
Agnes Lê Thị Thành
About Agnes Lê Thị Thành
Agnes Lê Thị Thành was a Vietnamese Catholic wife and mother, known locally as Bà Đê. Retord’s published 1843 account describes a household supported by farming and silkworm rearing, with six children.
Her daughters’ testimony, preserved in the same compilation, remembers her encouraging their religious practice and helping people who asked for food. The family opened its home to priests during persecution. She was arrested after helping conceal a missionary in 1841.
Pius X’s 1909 letter names Agnes as a married woman who was beaten and died afterward. The letter grants the group public recognition as blessed martyrs. This is the Church’s formal judgment; it does not supply a complete account of her earlier life.
She died in prison on 12 July 1841. Retord describes her weeping when her youngest daughter visited, and treats that grief as part of her witness. Her family attachments remained real in the midst of persecution.
John Paul II canonized Agnes with the Vietnamese martyrs on 19 June 1988. His letter lists her among the laypeople, alongside bishops and priests. Their shared recognition embraces people from different communities and periods, rather than a single event in which everyone died together.
The United States Catholic calendar commemorates this group on 24 November. The Vietnamese biographical roster also records a local remembrance of Agnes on 12 July, her recorded date of death.
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