The College of Martyrs in Penang, the beating heart of the faith in Southeast Asia
Heir to the first seminary opened in 1665 to train the local clergy in Ayuthia in present-day Thailand, the College General has seen more than 50 graduates give their lives for the Gospel, including the martyrs of the Vietnamese persecution in the 18th century and those who perished in Pol Pot’s Cambodia. For Card Francis, “May the exemplary and courageous spirit of these martyrs continue to inspire” today’s priests in Malaysia.
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Penang (AsiaNews) – The College General on Tanjung Bungah Hill in Penang has trained generations of priests for Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, which Pope Francis is getting ready to visit.
Its long history has been marked by the memory of more than 50 former students who have given their lives for the Gospel over the centuries; for this reason, it is also known as the College of Martyrs.
The College is the heir to an historic place of training for local clergy founded in 1665 in Ayuthia, Thailand; it is here that young Vietnamese priests victims of harsh persecution in the 18th century studied. The College General eventually moved to Pondicherry, India, and then to Penang in 1808.
Upon entering the compound, one sees a monument that commemorates Saint Philip Minh Van Doan and fellow martyrs Saint Peter Quy Cong Doan, Saint Paul Loc Le Van, Saint John Hoan Trinh Doan, and Saint Peter Luu Nguyen Van.
All five priests studied at the seminary opened by the French missionaries of the Missions Étrangères de Paris (MÉP), Frs François Pallu and Pierre Lambert de la Motte, whose beatification process opened in Vietnam a few months ago.
Some 42 seminarians of the College General were also killed after returning to their homeland to serve their people and were proclaimed saints as a group of Vietnamese Martyrs, canonised by John Paul II in 1988.
The persecution they endured in Vietnam was among the harshest in the history of the Church: torturers hacked off limbs joint by joint, tore the flesh with red-hot tongs, and used drugs to enslave the minds of the victims.
Christians at the time were branded on the face with the words "tả đạo", "members of a sinister religion" and their families and entire villages were erased for the simple fact of being Christian.
In addition to Vietnamese priests and seminarians, two French priests who taught at the General College – Fr Laurent Imbert and Fr Jacques-Honoré Chastan – were also martyred in Korea during a wave of Christian persecution in the mid-18th century. They too were proclaimed saints by John Paul II in May 1984 along with 103 Korean Catholics.
Another former student raised to the glory of the altars is Fr Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, persecuted in Thailand and left to die in prison in 1944. He was beatified by John Paul II on March 5, 2000.
The College preserves some relics of its martyrs: bone fragments from the five Vietnamese priests, a prayer book that belonged to Saint Philip Minh, and bone fragments of Saint Laurent Imbert and Saint Jacques-Honoré Chastan. A relic of Blessed Nicolas is set on the altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Penang.
“I have been deeply influenced by the fact that this college, from my seminary days until now, is referred to as the College of Martyrs,” said Card Sebastian Francis, bishop of Penang, who taught for many years at the seminary.
“The former students were martyred mostly in Vietnam and two teachers were martyred in Korea. Therefore, we have a proud legacy of more than 50 martyrs who were trained at College General.”
“The martyrdom of these men has left a lasting and permanent impact on me, to know that I belong to an institution which has lasted for centuries and was able to adapt and be relocated to many places beginning in Ayuthia (Thailand), India, and finally Penang. It is deeply imprinted in me that so many of our brothers from College General surrendered their lives for the Gospel.”
Card Sebastian remembers that among his fellow students in the 1970s there was a Cambodian seminarian named Marcel Truang. After completing his studies at the College General, he was given the opportunity to go to France, since the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot had already begun.
“Truang freely chose to return to Cambodia and be with his suffering and persecuted people, even though he knew the dangers that it would entail,” explained the Malaysian cardinal. “He returned to Cambodia and within a short time, we never heard from him anymore. His cause is up for canonisation in Cambodia,” the prelate added.
“This is the kind of sacrificial spirit that we hope to cultivate in our past, present, and future seminarians who are studying for the diocesan priesthood in Malaysia. May the exemplary and courageous spirit of these martyrs continue to inspire a missionary zeal in all seminarians who embark on their formative years and journey at this College of Martyrs here in Penang,” he said.
In addition to holy martyrs, over the course of its more than 350 years of existence, the College General has elevated more than 30 of its alumni to the episcopate in Burma (now Myanmar), Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia (including Sabah and Sarawak).
Among the figures who graduated from the College of Martyrs, we have Mgr Dominic Aloysius Vendargon (1909-2005), first Asian bishop of Kuala Lumpur; the late Anthony Soter Fernandez (1932-2020), the first Malaysian cardinal; and Cardinal William Goh, Archbishop of Singapore.
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15/10/2008
