Holy Martyrs of Vietnam

Founding Pastor: Rev. Dominic Tran Duy Nhat
Parish Founded: 1997
Church Dedication: 1997
Additional Dates of Importance:  Moved to new location at 915 S. Wakefield St. in 1985. New church dedicated in 1986. Renovation completed in May 2010 and dedicated by Bishop Loverde on June 20, 2010.

What Makes This Parish Unique?

We have schools of Confraternity of Christian Doctrine religious education and Vietnamese language, at the Parish and at the Mission, that help children to learn and practice their faith along with Vietnamese cultures and traditions. The school is taught bilingually and has about 700 K-12 students registered and 90 teachers and teacher assistant volunteers each school year. We are also committed to preserving the rich traditions by annually celebrating Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tết Nguyên Đán) on the first full moon of the Lunar Calendar (usually in February) and The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (Tết Trung Thu) in the fall during the full moon. These cultural events offer a variety of performances, children's activities, cultural learning opportunities, and traditional food for strengthening family and community. We also have the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement (VEYM) Chapter established in 1990 that now has approximately 400 members, at the Parish and at the Mission, consisting of youth 7 -17 years of age and about 50 youth servant leaders. The Chapter is part of the VEYM in America, which is also a branch of the Apostleship of Prayer, now known as the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, an official pontifical service under the Holy See. The Movement accepts the Eucharistic Jesus Christ as its focal point, as source of spiritual life, and as ideal for the life of its members. It is well-structured, with its main purposes being to educate and train youth in becoming better persons as well as excellent Christians; and to organize and to guide all youths in spreading the Good News of the Gospel; and to actively be involved in working for the good of society through charitable services and helping others. Holy Martyrs of Vietnam is proud to be the first Vietnamese Parish established in the U.S. It also has the very first Vietnamese Knights of Columbus Council established in the world on October 27, 1987.

Parish History:

Holy Martyrs of Vietnam was the first Vietnamese parish established in the U.S. Since 1975 with the first wave of refugees arriving at Fort Chaffee, AK and Indian Town Gap, PA, about 10,000 Vietnamese Catholics resettled in Northern Virginia and a Vietnamese Community was established with Father Tran Duy Nhat as the chaplain. Bishop Thomas Welsh helped us to purchase the Grange Hall in Annandale, and after a lot of work, the new church was dedicated and the parish was established as Blessed Martyrs of Vietnam. After six years, the mortgage was paid and Bishop John Keating let us buy the church property from Barcroft Bible Church. The first mass was celebrated there on Jan 1, 1989. After the canonization of the 117 Vietnamese Martyrs by Pope John Paul II in 1986, Bishop Keating renamed the parish Holy Martyrs of Vietnam. Since 1979 the parish has had 9 pastors: Fr. Dominic Tran Duy Nhat, Fr. Dominic Tran Dinh Nhi, Fr. John B. Tran Binh Trong, Fr. Anthony Dinh Minh Tien, O.P., Fr. John B. Nguyen Duc Vuong,O.P., Fr. Peter Pham Van Huong, O.P, Fr. Peter Hoang Van Thien, O.P., Fr. Joseph Tran Trung Liem, O.P., and the current pastor is Rev. Joseph Dang Quoc An, O.P. The parish had grown from 200 families in 1979 to 2000 families over the year. When the church and parking lot were too crowded, Bishop Loverde allowed to use St Thomas a Becket for those who reside in the west of Fairfax County. When the original congregation of 30 families from the Chantilly area outgrew St. Thomas à Becket, they moved to their current location at St. Veronica Church in 2011. The Our Lady of La Vang Catholic community was established as a mission of Holy Martyrs of Vietnam Church in Arlington by Bishop Michael F. Burbidge at a Mass at St. Veronica Church in Chantilly Sept. 3, 2017 with 422 registered families. Priests from Holy Martyrs of Vietnam have been in charge of this mission since 2006.

For more information about Holy Martyrs of Vietnam, please visit: https://www.cttdva.org/