Nhà thờ Giáo xứ An Thới

A thatched chapel near Bãi Khem

The story of Catholics in southern Phú Quốc begins with a rubber plantation. Around 1930, a number of Catholics from the North came to Phú Quốc to work rubber near Bãi Khem. Father Albéza, a Malaysian with the Vietnamese name Đặng Tuấn Anh, together with Father Merdrignac, had a temporary thatched chapel built there.

The plantation failed. Most of the workers went to the mainland, to Kiên Lương and Đất Hứa; only a few stayed. In 1955, Father Nguyễn Văn Liêu built a church in Dương Đông, near the western slope of the Nguyễn Trung Trực fort. An Thới still had no parish at that time.

10 April 1957: nearly a thousand people from Quỳnh Lưu

On 10 April 1957, nearly 1,000 Catholics from Quỳnh Lưu, Nghệ An, arrived in the south of Phú Quốc and founded a new parish: Hưng Văn Parish. Out on the island with them came Father Giuse Trần Đình Lữ, the first parish priest. The parish’s church is An Thới Church; the two names refer to the same place.

In 1975, many parishioners left and the parish was left almost empty. Then people from other parts of the country came out to the island to make a living one after another, and the parish filled up again. Today Hưng Văn has about 2,300 parishioners, divided into 7 pastoral zones, living scattered across An Thới ward and part of Dương Tơ. Besides the church, the parish has two places where Mass is held weekly, at Suối Lớn and Hòn Rỏi.

The church with the white roof

The first church was built in 1968 and heavily renovated in 1975. The present church was built by Father Gioan Trần Văn Trông in 2006–2010. In 2024, under Father Giuse Trần Văn Thịnh, the church, its basement, gate, grounds, catechism house and the cemetery area (Đất Thánh) were restored.

Seen from outside, the church is a block with a white roof rising steeply to a point, a cross on top and green wooded hills behind. The lower facade has a perforated brick wall and a statue of Our Lady. Inside are white walls, pointed arched windows, a stone floor and rows of wooden pews facing the sanctuary. In the grounds is the Marian Shrine, also called Our Lady’s Mountain (Núi Đức Mẹ), built in 2004 together with a memorial area.

The church’s patronal feast used to be the feast of Christ the King; it is now the feast of the Immaculate Conception, on 8 December.

A liturgical year in An Thới

From Father Giuse Trần Đình Lữ in 1957 to Father Giuse Trần Văn Thịnh, who took up his duties in 2019, the parish has had nine parish priests. Father Giuse Vũ Phi Phượng stayed longest, from 1975 to 1997, exactly the years when the parish was emptied and then slowly filled again. Serving the parish alongside them are the community of the Sisters of Divine Providence (Dòng Chúa Quan Phòng) in An Thới and the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Trinity (Dòng Đaminh Tam Hiệp) at Suối Lớn.

Life of faith here revolves around the liturgical seasons. On Good Friday, the community walks the Stations of the Cross inside the church. At the Easter Vigil, the Paschal candle is carried in procession from the back of the church to the sanctuary, and everyone in turn lights their own candle from it so the light spreads through the whole church. May is the Month of Flowers and October the month of the Rosary, when the parish carries the statue of Our Lady in procession around the church. The parish has the Gia Trưởng (heads of families), Hiền Mẫu (devoted mothers), the Dominican Lay Fraternity (Huynh đoàn Giáo dân Đaminh), Eucharistic Children (Thiếu nhi Thánh Thể), the Divine Mercy Association (Hội Lòng Thương Xót) and six choirs.