Théophane Buu Duong, Doctorate in Theology (1943)

Grandson of Emperor Tu Duc, Nguyen Phuc Buu Duong was born on April 2, 1907 in Hué, the imperial capital of Vietnam. Raised in Confucian morality and Buddhism, he discovered Chinese literature, European sciences and French literature in his youth.

He converted to Catholicism and joined the Dominican order in Hanoi, taking the name Frère Théophane in homage to Saint Théophane Vénard, a French priest and missionary in Vietnam who died a martyr during the reign of his grandfather.

In 1939, he left for France to study for a doctorate in theology at the Université Catholique de l'Ouest. The thesis he presented, a copy of which is kept in the university library, is characteristic of his state of mind: beatitude according to Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Buddha.

Ordained a priest in 1940 in Saint-Loup sur Thouet, Théophane Venard's birthplace, he returned to Vietnam in 1948 and became actively involved in the country's development. Despite the political upheavals, he founded numerous schools and, in 1970, the Minh Duc Catholic University in Saigon, where Eastern and Western thought met. He also set up a faculty of medicine, equating Sino-Vietnamese and Western medicine.

When the Viet Minh came to power in 1975, all this came to an end, and our Alumni ended his life caring for countless victims of war and events. He remained in his native land to the very end. His reflections and actions helped to spark a research movement conducive to new means of expression for the Vietnamese language in general, and the Vietnamese Church in particular.