Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 13 May 2012
- Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện was 106 years old when he died on this day in 2012. He served as Catholic bishop of Vĩnh Long in South Vietnam, near the Mekong Delta.
Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện was a Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishop, and the oldest bishop of the Catholic Church.
He died at the age of 106 (and two months). He had been born in city of Saigon, French Indochina in 1906. At the time, present-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia belonged to France.
Today, city of Saigon is part of Vietnam, and known as Ho Chi Minh City. It is the largest city in Vietnam (although Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, and the country’s second largest city).
The bishop’s surname (Nguyễn) is the most common surname in Vietnam. It is estimated that about 40% of the Vietnamese bear this surname. It became famous due to the large number of Vietnamese immigrants.
At the age of 25, Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện was ordained a priest. He became a bishop when he was 54 years old. Antoine was a Catholic bishop of Vĩnh Long in South Vietnam, near the Mekong Delta.
Later, he was appointed titular bishop of Spello, Italy. Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện was a bishop for more than 51 years. He died on this day in Nice, France.
