Sự lạ La Mã

30/06/2021 3291 0
The La Ma Church, located in Hung Nhuong commune, Giong Trom district, Ben Tre province, is one of the three Catholic pilgrimage centers in Vietnam. The La Ma Church belongs to the Diocese of Vinh Long and is the site that preserves the revealed image of Our Lady and the Child Jesus.

May 5 is the anniversary of finding the image of Our Lady, and October 7 is the anniversary of the Revealed Image of Our Lady. These are two major festivals celebrated annually by the Diocese of Vinh Long and the La Ma Parish. During these grand celebrations, hundreds of buses, ranging from 4-seaters to 30-seaters, fill the parking lots and even the road leading to the church, with around 2,000 attendees gathering in the large church courtyard. This reflects the admiration and faith of the Catholic community towards Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ben Tre, exploring the origins of the La Ma Church and the revealed image.
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Scene of the Roman church

In 1930, the pastor of Cai Bong Church, which was the second largest church in Ben Tre at the time, established the Son Doc parish and gifted the church a picture of "Our Lady of Perpetual Help." This church was then known as Bau Doi Chapel. In 1947, due to the war, the parishioners had to migrate to safer areas to make a living. By 1949, the Bau Doi parish was established; at the beginning of 1950, Bishop Ngo Dinh Thuc renamed it La Ma parish, and the image of Our Lady became the sacred object of the parish. Mr. Nguyen Van Hat (Mr. Bian Hat) later took the picture, and his son Nguyen Van Thanh kept it. On February 2, 1950, the French army launched a raid, destroying many homes, causing people to flee. During the escape, Mr. Thanh and a parishioner tried to protect the picture, but it fell into the river and was lost.

Three months later, on May 5, 1950, a fisherman accidentally retrieved the picture. Although the frame remained intact, the image was blurred. Mr. Thanh took it home to clean, but the image remained faint and unclear. In August that year, Mr. Bian Hat, while helping his son repair the house, saw the picture being used as a rain shield on the porch, so he brought it inside and placed it on the altar. Five months later, on October 7, 1950, a French boat patrolling the canal in front of Mr. Hat’s house opened fire, destroying everything except the altar and the back wall, where the image was placed. Miraculously, the image, which had been completely faded, gradually revealed the figure of Our Lady, although the crown on her head and that of the Child Jesus remained faint. This mysterious event was revered by the parishioners as the first miracle of the image.

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The Shrine of the Revealed Image of Our Lady

On August 15, 1951, during the Feast of the Assumption, Father Peter Du organized a procession of the image from La Ma parish to Cai Bong parish. During the ceremony, parishioners witnessed the image undergo another transformation: the crowns on the heads of Our Lady and the Child Jesus appeared clearly. This event was venerated as the second miracle of the image.

Today, Our Lady of La Ma Ben Tre is the third pilgrimage center of the Vietnamese Catholic Church, after Our Lady of La Vang and Our Lady of Tra Kieu. The sanctuary is the La Ma Ben Tre Church, which is 35 meters long, 16 meters wide, with a bell tower 19 meters high. At the site of the revealed image, a memorial has been erected at the location of Mr. Bian Hat's old house, about 500 meters from the church towards the La Ma river, where the faded image that had been submerged in water can be clearly seen.

When visiting Ben Tre, one must explore the mysterious event that deeply affects the Catholic community in Giong Trom, Ba Tri. Visitors can reach this place in just 40 minutes by car.

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The Miniature Scene of La Ma Church Courtyard

The incident that saved Mr. Bian Hat's family from death during the war has led to many blessings from Our Lady for those who sincerely pray to this image. One notable case is that of Ly Van Ca, who was saved from smallpox, which had already claimed the lives of his five brothers, leaving only him on the brink of death. (Currently, Ly Van Ca is a priest at the Holy Family Parish in Maddington, Perth, Australia).

At La Ma Ben Tre, pilgrims often come to offer flowers, light incense, traveling by road or by water. To continue the "Return to the Roots" tour (one of the three main tours of the three islets in Ben Tre) to visit the nationally special Nguyen Dinh Chieu relic, the national Vo Truong Toan relic, and many other sites and traditional hundred-year-old craft villages in Ba Tri. Particularly, visitors will explore a spiritual event at Con Dat (To An Binh – For Peace); where Lord Nguyen Anh took refuge after being pursued by the Tay Son army. This place also preserves the temple of the Lan Lai Nhi Dai General, whom the king deified, and where the mangrove tree was renamed the Thuy Lieu tree by the king.

Once, visit the homeland of the Coconut Land to explore the mystical spiritual tourism in the "Return to the Roots" tour of Bao Islet in Ben Tre./.

Lê Luông

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