Four Churches in Hue

Hue has a large Catholic population, and even though it's a small town, there are several really cool and historic churches. One day, we went on a little mini pilgrimage of sorts to visit four of them.

 

 Giáo Xứ Gia Hội

 

We discovered this community church by accident. Unlike the other ones in this post, it's not really a tourist destination. We wandered upon it while exploring the area around Hue's old town.

We weren't even going to go in at first, because the front door was closed, but as we were leaving, a man popped out of one of the buildings to the side of the church and told us we could just push the doors and go in. After we had looked around the beautiful sanctuary for a while, we spoke to the man for a few minutes. He told us that the church was over 100 years old (125, I think).

During the war it was mostly destroyed by northern bombs.

"We all sat in that building", he pointed to a small house beside the church and mimed praying the rosary. "This church used to look like Notre Dame in Paris."

He told us that the Americans helped rebuild the church after it was destroyed, and that "now it looks like a Protestant church". He also told us that after the bombing, everything was destroyed. Everything, that is, except for a statue of Mary that stood alone undamaged surrounded by rubble. I even found photos of that online!

He told us that he has some family who live in Houston, and we had a short talk about our trip in Vietnam so far. After that, we shook hands, and Pinky and I left with a really great, interesting memory from our time in Hue.

 

St. Francis Xavier

 

St. Francis Xavier is the patron saint of Asia. Known as the "Apostle of the East", he traveled through Goa, Indonesia, Malacca, and further. There are lots of churches in Asia named after him.

We could see the tall steeple even from the old town, across the Perfume River, where we were staying. It's not the cathedral, nor the biggest church, but it is right in the center of the popular tourist area, and easy to find!

Redemptorist Church (Notre Dame)

 

Redemptorist Church was a bit of a surprise! Hue is a small city, just 300,000 with a Christian population of lower than that, but this church is huge! We found Redemptorist Church surrounded by beautiful green gardens.

They were doing some restoration work when we arrived, but the church was open. The interior was huge, bright, and breezy.

Like every other church we've visited in Vietnam, this church had a prayer grotto. It seems like they are really popular in Vietnam! I really wonder why!

Hue Cathedral

 

Finally, we made our way to Hue Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Hue, which oversees five diocese in central Vietnam.

Unfortunately, the cathedral was closed when we visited (we just barely missed visiting hours before they closed for the afternoon lunch break) but we got to walk around the grounds and admire the outside of the beautiful and fairly modern-looking building.

And if you think these churches are cool, just wait to see the cathedral in Da Nang (coming next week!).