Dominique Lefèbvre

Who was Dominique Lefèbvre?

Dominique Lefèbvre was a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, Bishop of Isauropolis in partibus infidelium, and Vicar Apostolic in Vietnam during the 19th century. His imprisonment in Vietnam was a pretext for the first French naval interventions in the country.

Dominique Lefèbvre arrived in Vietnam in 1835. At the time, it was illegal for missionaries to enter the country to proselytise. In 1845 Lefèbvre was condemned to death. The US Captain John Percival of the USS Constitution failed in his attempts to have him released, but managed to inform Admiral Jean-Baptiste Cécille who obtained his release.

Later Dominique Lefèbvre again re-entered Vietnam, and was again imprisoned. In 1847, Cécille sent two warships under Captains Lapierre and Rigault de Genouilly to Danang in Vietnam to obtain the liberation of two imprisoned French missionaries, Bishop Dominique Lefèbvre and Duclos, and freedom of worship for Catholics in Vietnam. As negotiations drew on without results, on April 15, 1847 a fight named the Bombardment of Đà Nẵng erupted between the French fleet and Vietnamese ships, three of them being sunk as a result. The French fleet then sailed away.