THE VIETNAMESE SISTERS "LOVERS OF THE CROSS"

Vietnam developed a congregation of Sisters. Beginning from a group of feminine catechists founded by Alexander de Rhodes, French Bishop Lambert de la Motto organized them in 1670 as religious; for title and main spirit he gave them the title "Lovers of the Cross," dedicated to meditation on the Passion of Christ. Their apostolic work is as follows: they instruct children, pagans and Christians, they visit and help the sick, they aid fallen girls or even former prostitutes.

The Lovers of the Cross have furnished not less than three hundred martyrs in their long history; why are none beatified and canonized?The reasons given verbally to this writer are the following.

They are not a united, single congregation, but are made up of many diocesan congregations under bishops and parish priests; they therefore have no organization to work for a common goal of beatification and canonization, as the Dominican Fathers and the Paris Foreign Mission Society. Further, they were not brought to trial, so there are few documents to sustain their causes.

The Lovers of the Cross have abundant vocations even today, with many houses for the training of their Sisters and caring for them in their old age. However, no native Asian Sister appears as beatified or canonized in all the great persecutions of Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan. Thailand in 1940 produced the first two Sister martyrs, also called by the name of Lovers of the Cross, although they have no connection with the Sisters of Vietnam.