Joseph Marchand was a French missionary in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society

Paris Foreign Missions Society

The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious order, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons dedicated to missionary work in foreign lands....

.
Marchand was born in Passavant, in the Doubs

Doubs

Doubs is a department the Franche-Comté region of eastern France named after the Doubs River.-History:As early as the 13th century, inhabitants of the northern two-thirds of Doubs spoke the Franc-Comtois language, a dialect of Langue d'Oïl. Residents of the southern third of Doubs spoke a dialect...

 department of France. In 1833, he joined the Lê Văn Khôi revolt

Le Van Khoi revolt

The Lê Văn Khôi revolt was an important revolt in 19th century Vietnam, in which southern Vietnamese, Vietnamese Catholics, French Catholic missionaries and Chinese settlers under the leadership of Lê Văn Khôi opposed the Imperial rule of Minh Mạng.-Origin:The revolt was spurred by the...

 by Lê Văn Khôi

Le Van Khoi

Lê Văn Khôi was the adopted son of the Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt. He led the 1833–1835 Lê Văn Khôi revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng, but died in 1834....

, son of the late governor of southern Vietnam Lê Văn Duyệt

Le Van Duyet

Lê Văn Duyệt was a Vietnamese general who helped Nguyễn Ánh—the future Emperor Gia Long—put down the Tây Sơn rebellion, unify Vietnam and establish the Nguyễn Dynasty...

. Khoi and Marchand vowed to overthrow Emperor Minh Mạng

Minh Mang

Minh Mạng was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801...

 and replace him with My Duong, the son of Minh Mạng's late elder brother Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh

Nguyen Phuc Canh

Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh (1780–1801, also known as Prince Cảnh, was the eldest son of the Vietnamese Prince Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, the future Emperor Gia Long. At the age of seven, he famously visited France with the French Catholic Father Pigneau de Béhaine to sign an alliance...

, who were both Catholics. Marchand and Khoi appealed to the Catholics to join in overthrowing Minh Mạng and installing a Catholic emperor. They quickly seized the Citadel of Saigon

Citadel of Saigon

The Citadel of Saigon also known as the Citadel of Gia Dinh was a square Vauban stone fortress that stood in Saigon , Vietnam from its construction in 1790 until its destruction in February 1859...

 and the uprising lasted two years.

He was arrested in 1835 in Saigon and martyred, by having his flesh pulled by tongs

Tongs

Tongs are used for gripping and lifting tools, of which there are many forms adapted to their specific use. Some are merely large pincers or nippers, but the greatest number fall into three classes:...

 (the torture of the hundred wounds).

He was canonized by Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

 in 1988. His feast day is November 30, and his joint feast day with the Vietnamese Martyrs

Vietnamese Martyrs

The Vietnamese Martyrs, also known as the Martyrs of Tonkin, Martyrs of Annam , Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions , or Martyrs of Indochina, are saints on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints canonized by Pope John Paul II...

is November 24.