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Phat Diem is 120 km south of Hanoi and 30km southeast of Ninh Binh and was an early centre of Christianity in Vietnam.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, the Jesuit from Avignon who developed Vietnam’s romanised writing system, preached here in 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral combines European Gothic church architecture with the Sino-Vietnamese temple tradition.
Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.<br/><br/> An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.<br/><br/> To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.<br/><br/> Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.
Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.<br/><br/> An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.<br/><br/> To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.<br/><br/> Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.
Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.<br/><br/> An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.<br/><br/> To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.<br/><br/> Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.
Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.<br/><br/> An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.<br/><br/> To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.<br/><br/> Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.
Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.<br/><br/> An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.<br/><br/> To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.<br/><br/> Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.
Phat Diem Cathedral is located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh Province. It is one of the most celebrated and unusual churches in Vietnam. Phat Diem church architecture is a synthesis of Sino-Vietnamese and French Catholic styles.<br/><br/> Catholicism came early to Phat Diem. Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit from Avignon who first developed Vietnam’s quoc ngu writing system, preached here as long ago as 1627, but it was a Vietnamese priest, Father Tran Luc (also known as Cu Sau or ‘Old Six’) who conceived and organised the construction of Phat Diem’s extraordinary cathedral between 1875 and 1898.<br/><br/> The cathedral complex is dominated by a monumental bell tower with curved Chinese eaves and triple gateway that could easily be mistaken for the entrance to a Vietnamese temple, were it not for the angels and crucifixes prominently in evidence. Behind the bell tower the main body of the cathedral extends back along a dark, cool nave about 75 metres (246 ft) long, the roof supported by the gigantic trunks of 52 single ironwood trees, the Latin rubric pax domini, ‘the peace of the lord’, inscribed on many.<br/><br/> An altarpiece of extraordinary cultural syncretism frames the altar, cut from a single block of marble. The centrepiece, behind a large crucifix, is a statue of the Virgin and Child, but the whole is completely surrounded by a background of elaborate crimson lacquer and gold leaf, more like the Temple of Literature in Hanoi than a Catholic church.<br/><br/> To compound the syncretic effect, a barred shrine houses a statue of the Virgin Mary in a gilded mandarin’s palanquin, while representations of phoenixes, lions, bamboo groves, peach blossoms and other typically Vietnamese motifs are carved into the pillars and elaborate ceiling joists. Beside the main door to the cathedral, the figures of two angels are incised into the stone.<br/><br/> Outside, in front of the cathedral, is a statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the Christ-child in her arms. As is quite common in Vietnam, the appearance of the ‘Mother of God’ bears much in common with Sino-Vietnamese statues of Guanyin, the ‘Goddess of Mercy’ – but here the syncretism is compounded by the Virgin’s dress, as she is clad in an elegant Vietnamese ao dai.
The ao dai (Vietnamese: áo dài) is a Vietnamese national costume, now most commonly for women. In its current form, it is a tight-fitting silk tunic worn over pantaloons. The word is pronounced ow-zye in the north and ow-yai in the south, and translates as 'long dress'. The name áo dài was originally applied to the dress worn at the court of the Nguyễn Lords at Huế in the 18th century. This outfit evolved into the áo ngũ thân, a five-paneled aristocratic gown worn in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by Paris fashions, Nguyễn Cát Tường and other artists associated with Hanoi University redesigned the ngũ thân as a modern dress in the 1920s and 1930s. The updated look was promoted by the artists and magazines of Tự Lực văn đoàn (Self-Reliant Literary Group) as a national costume for the modern era. In the 1950s, Saigon designers tightened the fit to produce the version worn by Vietnamese women today. The dress was extremely popular in South Vietnam in the 1960s and early 1970s, frowned upon as frivolous and borgeois in the North between 1952 and 1986, but is today increasingly popular nationwide, having become once again a symbol of Vietnamese nationalism and Vietnamese female beauty.
After the end of the French rule in 1954s, Catholicism declined in the North, where the Communists regarded it as a reactionary force opposed to national liberation and social progress. In the South, by contrast, Catholicism was expanded under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, who promoted it as an important bulwark against North Vietnam.<br/><br/> Diem, whose brother was Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc, gave extra rights to the Catholic Church, dedicated the nation to the Virgin Mary and preferentially promoted Catholic military officers and public servants while restricting Buddhism and allowing Catholic paramilitaries to demolish temples and pagodas.<br/><br/> In 1955 approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North after an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South in Operation Passage to Freedom.
Vietnamese refugees board LST 516 for their journey from Haiphong, North Vietnam, to Saigon, South Vietnam during Operation Passage to Freedom, October 1954. This operation evacuated thousands of Vietnamese refugees from the then newly created Communist North Vietnam to pro-American South Vietnam.<br/><br/> By the end of the operation, the Navy had carried to south more then 293,000 immigrants including many Catholic refugees.