Vicente Liêm of Peace (Spanish: Vicente Liêm de la Paz) (Vietnamese: Vinh Sơn Hòa Bình) or Vinh Sơn Phạm Hiếu Liêm (1732 – November 7, 1773) was a Tonkinese (present day northern Vietnam) Dominican friar venerated as a saint and martyr by the Catholic Church along with other Vietnamese Martyrs in 1988.
He was born at Trà Lũ village, in the phủ of Thiên Trường, Nam Định Province, Tonkin in 1732 to Christian parents, Antôn and Maria Doãn, members of the Tonkinese nobility. When he fell gravely ill several days after his birth, he was baptized by Fr. Chien de Santo Tomas, taking the name of Vincent. He was later brought by his parents to a missionary center where he learned catechism. In 1738, King Philip V of Spain opened the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in the Philippines to Chinese and Tonkinese students through a scholarship program. The Vicariate Apostolic of Eastern Tonkin, ran by Dominican friars at the time, decided to let Liêm and four other Tonkinese (Jose de Santo Tomas, Juan de Santo Domingo, Pedro Martir and Pedro de San Jacinto) study in the Philippines under this scholarship. (Full article...)
Attributes: book, palm, hood, rosary, academic birreta, dalmatic
Patronage: Tonkin, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Students of Letran
See also: Francisco Palau, Vincenzo Grossi