Ben Tre Roman Church is the third largest pilgrimage center of the Vietnamese church. This place is a place to worship the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help after more than three months under the canal. Ben Tre Roman Church is a famous Me Kong Delta pilgrimage destination known to many Catholics as well as tourists from all over the world. However, not everyone knows how to travel to the Roman church in Ben Tre, so now we will introduce the information of the Roman church for visitors.
The location of La Ma Church
La Ma Church is in Huong Nhuong Commune, Giong Trom District, Ben Tre Province. This church was built in 1951 by Bishop Phero Ngo Dinh Thuc to honor Our Lady who helped to do miracles through the image of Our Lady in Roma Ben Tre.
The history of the church
The church is famous for its “Roman miracle” which is extremely mysterious and sacred. That is the story about the photo of Our Lady of Perpetual Help resurrected after three months lying in the canal and lost. The story is summarized as follows:
Before La Ma Church has lost for a long time because of the war so it had to move from Don Doc to Bau Doi. This is the U Minh field with a lot of canal and have flood all year round. During the time of moving for the war, Mr Nguyen Van Hat is the member in the church who gave this photo of Our Lady for his son to keep. But then, his son’s house was invaded by the French and it was lost since then.
It is worth a visit La Ma Church
Three months later, an old woman name Vo Thi Luong was shoveling fish in the field, she found this photo in the canal. At the time to find out the photo, it was rotten, lost color, only mud and Mr Thanh brought it home and stored it. After that Bau Doi was again in the smoke and fire of the war, the photo of Our Lady of Perpetual Help appear clearly, beautiful and radiant. This surprised everyone although it was still lost the hat. Since then, the rumors of the photo spread and the pilgrims from all over the world came to witness it more and more crowded and put their faith in it.
Until now, the Roman church has a history of more than a century and the photo of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is still the sacred and respect symbol of the church. Nowadays, Ben Tre Roman Catholic is cared by a Father the Redemptorist. Every week, there is a Mass in the church. If the pilgrimage groups travel to the church and inform in advance the Father, he will prepare the Mass. The Mass is always organized on Sundays, the first Saturday of the month and the 13th of the month.
How to travel to La Ma Church from Ben Tre city?
There are three ways to travel to La Ma Church:
The first way:
Travel on the big national way of 885. It is about 24km from the city centre. From Nguyen Dinh Chieu street travel along Chet Say Bridge of Giong Trom District, then you travel straight along between borders of Giong Trom and Ba Tri Districts. It means from Son Doc crossroads 5 km and then turns right around 20 turns to reach La Ma Church. So you should ask local people to easy to reach the church.
From the main church, you travel more 3km to reach where to have back the photo of Our Lady with a worship house. This route visitor can pass through Nguyen Thi Dinh Mrs memorial site where visitor can stop to visit and learn more of this famous woman in Vietnam.
The second way:
From the road 887, you travel straight through Ben Tre 2 within 45 minutes to reach Son Doc crossroads. It is the intersection between provincial road 885 and provincial road 887. And the road will be smaller. On this road visitor can stop and call on to visit the temple of Lieutenant-General Đồng Văn Cống.
The third way:
You also travel through Ben Tre 2 Bridge but to the crossroad right on Phu Nhuan Secondary School. Then you turn right along the ciment road of the gardens. This is very beautiful road, cool with a lot of green tree and using boat through the river. However, it is very windy. The distance of this road is the shortest and visitors can buy the fruit along the road and enjoy the countryside scenery.
In general, all these three roads have its own advantage. However, the best time to see is after 3pm so that less sunny light. When travel you can be on the first way but the return should choose another way to enjoy its beauties.
Source Images: Internet
