Venerable Joseph Marchand

“And, to begin with the year 1835, the mis sionary Marchand show missionnaire Marchand French missionary priest and martyr in Cochinchina. ed himself in Cochinchina Cochinchine Region in the south of present-day Vietnam where the martyrdom took place. to be a courageous athlete of Jesus Christ. The fort where he was held by the insurgents having been taken by the king's soldiers, he was captured by them, thrown like a wild beast into an iron cage, and taken to the capital city. There, solicited in vain by the violence of torments to abandon the faith, he was, at the end of November of that year, put to death by order of the king, in hatred of his faith.”

This worthy confessor , Joseph Marcha Joseph Marchand French missionary priest and martyr in Cochinchina. nd, was fro m Passava Passavant Place of origin of Joseph Marchand. nt, in the diocese of Besançon. One cannot read without horror what he had to endure. This account was transmitted by eyewitnesses, and a painting, brought from Cochinchina and kept in Paris, in the room of the martyrs at the Foreign Mission Missions étrangères Society of apostolic life to which the missionary belonged. s, depicts the holy priest in the hands of his executioners. On three different occasions, five executioners, armed with enormous pincers, tore the flesh from his legs and thighs.

Fifteen days later, when the wounds were beginning to heal, he was subjected to the same torture with red-hot tongs: thick smoke exhaled from the martyr's burning wounds. In the midst of this infernal torture, the mandarin questioned the martyr about the dogmas and customs of the Christians, and the dying martyr still found the strength to defend and confess the faith of Jesus Christ.

Finally, the moment of deliverance arrived. M. Marchand was tied to a post; two executioners, armed with cutlasses, took their places at his sides; the sound of the tom-tom was heard; the two executioners seized the patient's chest with their pincers, pulled it, twisted it with violence, cut it off in a single stroke, and threw the bloody shreds to the ground. The missionary made no movement. The executioners seized other parts of the body, and two enormous pieces of flesh were cut away: the patient stirred, his gaze turned toward heaven: "O my God! O Father!" he cried out. They descended to the legs: two more shreds fell under the iron; then exhausted nature succumbed, the head bowed, and the soul of the martyr flew into the bosom of God.

The body of Mr. Marchand was crushed and reduced to dust, and this dust was thrown into the sea. It was not possible to preserve any of his relics.

Pope Gregory XVI, in his decree of June 19, 1840, declared him Venerable.