Two Last Weeks of
Brother Theophane's Life on Earth

RIP
Sö Huynh Theùophane Troïng
Thomas NGUYEÃN VAÊN KEÁ
+ November 2, 2003 - Nhaø La San Vieät Nam, San Jose

Sinh ngaøy 17/12/1912
AÙo Doøng : 18/03/1930
Khaán troïn : 27/07/1937

BROTHER THEOPHANE KE
(1912 –2003)
by Brother Brendan Kneale, Editor

An inspiration to his confreres, his students, colleagues and friends, Brother Theophane was an example of zeal for education and learning, of devotion to religious life, love of students and of Community.  Courage and determination (some would say, stubbornness) marked his self-chosen exile from Vietnam, his adoption of America, and his educational apostolates.  At the same time he was personally charming and had a winning way with students, faculty members, and alumni.  Theophane was always busy without being overworked, serious without being depressed, edifying and inspirational without being sanctimonious, cheerful without being frivolous.    His curriculum vitae is, of course, quite unusual.

Tour of Duty

1934, Thomas Aquinas H.S., Namdinh Vietnam
1935, École Pelerin, Hue
1939, École Punginier, Hanoi
1942, Institution Taberd, Saigon
1958, Generalate, Rome
1961, Scholasticate, Dalat
1963, Novitiate, Nhatrang
1967, Catholic University, Dalat
1975, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga

Thomas Nguyen Van Ke, the future Brother Theophane, was born in Phu-Luong, December 17, 1912.    This was in the North Vietnam part of French Indo-China.   His parents were descendants of staunch Catholic families very much influenced by the French traditions of the country.  In fact, his father, The, volunteered and went to join a work force in France during World War I.  The family included a sister and four brothers.

The young Thomas made a formal study of the French language before ever making a study of his native tongue.  This education started in 1919 when his father, having returned from the War, took him to Hanoi to learn music and French.  He was confided to a Fr. Depaulis to learn both instrumental music and the language.  Then in 1922 his education continued at the French De La Salle Brothers’ schools, starting at École Puginier in Hanoi. 

Brother Theophane enjoyed all his school work except in mathematics and the sciences.  He attributed his dislike to an arithmetic teacher who, seeing the Thomas’s blank copy book, cracked him on the head with his fan and drew blood.    In his own words, Theophane recalled, “So my first education was in music and languages.  I acquired a taste for literature, poetry, music, history, geography, philosophy, theology, and languages, but I was always handicapped when it came to mathematics, science, drawing, art, chemistry, and, alas, penmanship!”

In 1925 he transferred to the Brothers’ school, St. Joseph’s in Haiphong, where the Brother in charge of their well known choir asked for him to come and be its official organist.   He liked the school and was impressed particularly by a Brother Auguste and a Brother Crescence who, as supervisors, were to be seen continually carrying and reciting their rosaries.  The former was a good story teller and the latter a good disciplinarian.  St. Joseph’s was a residential school, and boys will be boys.  One problem they created, Theophane recalled with amusement, was that of gathering noisy cicadas and bringing them to the dormitories.  Similarly, the boys had a passion for gathering crickets and setting them up in combat with each other.

Vocation

Brother Theophane noted that he began to think of becoming a Brother himself while he was at St. Joseph’s in Haiphong.   In 1927 he went to the Juniorate in Hue beginning seven years of training before his first teaching assignment as a Brother.  His Novitiate began in 1930, and he claimed that he spent the canonical year “seriously, silently, and prayerfully” under the direction of Brother Joseph Vauthier, a Savoyard who had been a long-time missionary in Sri Lanka.   Theophane developed a high regard for him.

His Scholasticate included two years at the University of Saigon followed by a year in theology at the Saint Sulpice Seminary.

In his own words, he notes, “At that time our country and the entire French Indo China was at peace.   We enjoyed our religious and Lasallian life as educators, and our schools were active and prosperous.  We had a glorious and justified reputation among the Indo Chinese population.   Good families and influential people sent their children to FSC schools.  Our alumni had fine reputations among civic administrators and business men.”

Assignments

While Theophane enjoyed his early education and his training in formation, he always kept in mind that the purpose of it all was not enjoyment but preparation to be a teacher.  He remained in the classroom and school work almost continuously for sixty years.  And during that time he considered himself—correctly—to have been a “good community man.”  In his old age, and after twenty years in California, he characterized himself as appreciated by his Brothers for being “a wise man, a polyglot, a poet, a good confrere,” and as a recipient of  “friendship and fraternal love.

We note above in his Tour of Duty that, after formation, he first returned to grammar school teaching, even for a time at his former school, École Puginier.  He soon moved on to secondary school work, to formation work, and finally to university assignments.  At Thomas Aquinas he taught French, history and religion.  At his next school he was also organist.  In 1938-1939 he taught part time at the St. Thomas Seminary.  By 1941 he was at the Institution Taberd  in Saigon teaching Latin and Greek as well as teaching violin and piano.  His university teaching began at the Catholic University of Dalat in the highlands of Vietnam where he taught theology, business ethics and the history of education.  Then he worked with the Novices for four years, followed by an assignment. as Director of Scholastics.

He had early on developed his interest in languages, and, though the Brothers in the French tradition were discouraged from studying Latin, he studied that too.  This exceptional choice turned out to be providential.  When the Brothers’ international Institute opened a training program for religious education at the Pontifical University of the Lateran in Rome, calling it Jesus Magister, Theophane was the only Vietnamese Brother deemed qualified to attend.  He went in 1958.  His trip was by ship, which enabled him to visit several Far Eastern and Near Eastern ports.  In Rome he earned his licentiate by 1961.   While residing at the Generalate he took courses preparing to do formation work for the Brothers and took a course at the Angelicum University.  He also had a chance to do some traveling in mainland Europe and to visit England. 

Brother Theophane’s teaching career in Vietnam spanned, and preceded, the thirty-four years of a terrible war (1941-1975) which devastated the country.   He came to detest “the deceit and wickedness of Communism and its methods of propaganda,” the killing of his compatriots and the driving of many into exile.   He was nostalgic for the French colonial system under which, it seemed to him, the beneficent results of education and culture were spread during the preceding one hundred years in Vietnam.

Prior to his own exile in 1975 Theophane exhibited his scholarship by writing, in Vietnamese, handbooks on the history of education, some articles on social psychology, notes on business ethics, a work called “Human Life in the Light of Christianity” and another called “Education of Love.”  For twelve years he was an official correspondent for a pedagogical review in Saigon.   Many of the alumni from the Catholic University of Dalat who came to the United States in recent times have sought him out.

Over the years, Brother pursued his interest in languages, learned to read Chinese characters, and for purposes of research learned Biblical Hebrew as well as Spanish and Italian.    For purposes of communication he was, of course, fluent in Vietnamese and French, and in the last twenty-five years of his life became good enough in English to speak and write effectively, even publishing some verse.   His room contained dictionaries for many languages.

As for his interest in music, he mastered several instruments, as mentioned.   He also composed music, especially after coming to the United States.  At special Community events he would play his violin and sing a few songs for the Brothers.

Fleeing the Vietcong in 1975

The story of the fall of Saigon is well known, and accounts of the widespread dispersion of Vietnamese exiles are also well known.   Brother Theophane has written two dramatic descriptions of his own escape.   In summary, the surrender of the country to the Communists resulted immediately in the confiscation of the twenty-five Brothers’ schools and of the Catholic University where Brother had been teaching as well as doing library and administrative work for fourteen years.   Though many of his confreres elected to stay in Vietnam, even knowing that they were to be denied all school work, the superiors of the District offered every Brother the option of becoming a refugee and leaving the country.   He was given thirty American dollars, and on April 30, 1975, Theophane joined forty people in a small boat, which put out to sea and sought to be picked up and taken abroad.  He later wrote, “Happily the aircraft carrier Denver from the Seventh Fleet picked them up and took them to Subic Bay in the Philippines.”  All told, the ship picked up about four hundred “boat people.”  From there they were flown to Guam and then two weeks later to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas—on the feast of St. La Salle! 

In the large camp at Fort Chaffee the refugees needed sponsors in order to move on.   Brother John Johnston, Visitor of the St. Louis District, sponsored the Brothers and some families from Chaffee and brought them to the District motherhouse in Glencoe, Missouri.  Theophane reported that, while there, he was waiting for a sign from Providence about his future.    Brother Thomas Loome in the San Francisco District heard about Theophane’s qualifications and background, so he arranged with Saint Mary’s College in Moraga for an invitation to him, in order to see if he and the College could work something out.   Brother Thomas Loome probably had in mind the needs of the Lasallian Library at the College.   This was a collection in early French and in Church Latin of rare volumes on French spirituality and other sources connected to St. La Salle which had been gathered by Brother Thomas while studying in Europe.

Speaking about himself, Theophane later wrote: “He came to Saint Mary’s College and saw the large and beautiful campus; he was very pleased and said to himself, ‘I find here what I have lost in Vietnam—a campus like that of my University in Dalat.  I want to live here for the rest of my life.’ “  And he did.

Saint Mary’s College of California

One of Brother Theophane’s characteristics was that he, as Brother John O’Neill reports, could be at home away from home.  Exile must have meant a lot to him, but he maintained a positive outlook and a gracious, even stubborn, determination to make the most of the culture-change he experienced.   At the same time he kept in touch with other Vietnamese Brothers, especially with the Community soon set up in nearby San Jose, as well as with the large population of other exiles in the area.  At the College he immediately began as a professor in the department of classical languages and as an assistant curator in the Lasallian Library.   He continued the departmental affiliation for the next twelve years.   Students of Latin came to appreciate him very much—he was not very demanding.   One administrator visited his class and noted that he frequently asked questions of the students, but then answered them himself before the students could reply!   One student wrote: “Brother Theophane teaches not only Latin but many other useful and wise things; he teaches us how to live with wisdom and happiness.”

Brothers at the College were greatly impressed by the rapidity with which Theophane “got on the bandwagon of the computer revolution.”   Even though most Brothers his age were slow to adapt to personal computers, he was quick to acquire one.   And he soon augmented it with others that accommodated the Vietnamese language and some that even enabled him to compose music.   He rapidly filled them up with so much data that many of them didn’t take long to crash.  A lot of the instruction that he received in computer matters came from Dalat alumni and from sons of alumni.   One of them, named Thac, was of particular help and soon came to call Theophane “father” and to be called “son.”

Much of Theophane’s work was with e-mails to Vietnamese confreres and alumni spread throughout the world.   He became a kind of bond among what the Vietnamese refer to as their “diaspora.”  The San Jose Vietnamese people called him “grandfather.”  At the same time, he insisted on the importance of the local exiles becoming Americanized.  He himself adapted quickly to American food.  He refused offers to visit back to Vietnam.   And he became an American citizen.

In the Brothers’ Community he soon became of service, notably by helping out in the chapel.  Eventually he became the College sacristan and held the post for many years.   He was of particular help to visiting priests, who were frequent, and to the Brothers’ chaplains, many of whom over the years were themselves exiles from abroad studying at nearby universities.   One or two of the younger ones even asked him to teach them some Latin.  Each day he paced the aisles of the large College chapel while reciting his Rosary.  In this way he met many visiting groups and several students who stopped in.  Some of the latter needed his counsel, and he freely offered it.

Brother Theophane was certainly a man of prayer, devoted to the Rosary, spending about three hours a day in the chapel.  For the Community he was more than an example of regularity; he was an organizer of it!  He reminded the Brothers about prayer schedules and other commitments.  He even acquired a very small handbell which he rang at times.  At formal Community meetings he often had serious recommendations to make and was prepared to make them—whether they were on the agenda or not.  He had never heard of Robert’s Rules of Order.  These idiosyncrasies were smilingly tolerated by his confreres because Theophane was such a sincere and charming person. 

Especially after he retired from classroom teaching in 1987 Brother Theophane wrote a great deal of inspirational and poetic material, some in English or French, some in Vietnamese, and some of it translations from French to English.   He would circulate many of these compositions worldwide, and offer them for local publication too.  Two boxes of his notebooks were selected to be preserved in the District Archives.  Toward the end of his life a pair of major projects used up much of his time: a translation of the four volumes of Bl. Anna Katerina Emmerich into Vietnamese, and a similar translation of the ten volumes of mystical revelations of Maria Valtorta.

Brother Theophane enjoyed stable health most of his life.  [He did like to relate that he was once in a serious accident:  he ran a Moped into a wall and was unconscious for a whole day.]    He attributed his health to the avoidance of doctors and medicines.   Various Brother Directors tried to get him to change his mind.  Eventually, they got him to go to a dentist, since he had obviously neglected his teeth for many years.   Probably to his surprise, he found the experience was worthwhile.  Finally, at age eighty-four, his general health showed signs of weakening.   He developed a fever and serious cough, enough to scare him.   Brothers Augustus Rossi and Philippe Kreiter got him to go to the hospital where his fever was promptly controlled and pneumonia was avoided.   But he still had sharp chest pains.   He admitted later that he tried to avoid extended treatment.  However, eventually he gave in and surrendered himself to the doctor’s care.  He edified the nurses by reciting his Rosary, and actually made good friends with some of them and engaged them in serious religious discussions.  Several others on the staff of this secular  hospital came to consult him.

In 1999 Brother Theophane recorded four of his resolutions:  to give continual thanks to God and Mary; to “take seriously my retirement” by prayer and recollection; to continue mass e-mailings to the 150 persons on his contact list; and to send “necrological notices” about edifying deceased Brothers to everyone who can profit from them.  He added several observations praising the spirit of the Brothers on campus and their relations with the College’s other constituencies; noting that “openness” has to be taken prudently and in a way that preserves Community religious spirit without hypocrisy; and lauding the Community’s various financial charities.

Last Days

In October, 2003, Brother Visitor Stanislaus Campbell notified the District that Brother Theophane had stomach cancer and that it had spread.   He was placed in the Alexan Brothers’ Hospital in San Jose near the Vietnamese Communities of Lasallian Sisters and Brothers who looked after him—and with whom he had been in constant contact over the years.   He died on November 2, All Souls’ Day. Brother Valery An, Director of the San Jose Community, wrote a touching and detailed account of the final hours.   It was difficult to convince Theophane to go to the hospital because he insisted that he wanted to die in Community.  But Valery pointed out that time in the hospital might guarantee many more years in Community, so Theophane finally yielded.  For several days he received many visitors and seemed actually to enjoy his stay there.  But he wanted to “die naturally” and so refused special operations or therapy.  It was finally agreed, with the help of Brother Thomas Jones, Auxiliary Visitor, to arrange hospice care and to bring him to the San Jose Community.    This was accomplished with difficulty but to the satisfaction of Brother Theophane.  With a statue of the Most Blessed Virgin in his hands and a crucifix before him, he was moved a couple of days before his death.  Former students from Vietnam came from as far away as Paris and from cities throughout the country to visit him. 

A funeral Mass was held in the San Jose Community on the evening of his death, and then the body was taken to a funeral home near St. Mary’s College in preparation for the principal Mass.  Brother Kenneth Cardwell gave the eulogy, in which he observed that it would easy to say that Brother Theophane had “now passed on to his true home.”  However, he added, “It would be easy but false, because the Christian is not a castaway in this world, exiled from heaven.  And it would be inappropriate because Theophane, in his life among strangers in this strange land, chose not be an exile.  He showed us, even those who were born here, what it means to be at home.  He was at home with his religion, with his Brothers, with his students; he was at home with his friends, with himself and with God.”

In a subsequent note to the Archives, Brother Arnold Stewart, who had been his Director at the College for eleven years, described how edified he was that Theophane never complained.  “Having been displaced from his country in his sixties and finding himself in a new one with a new language and a new culture, the experience had to be very trying.  Yet I never heard him complain […].  He did his best to take things as the Lord sent them and participated fully in the life of the Community at the College.”  Brother Arnold added, “He was totally obedient and accepted the decisions of the Community even if they might have been alien to the manner in which he had been brought up […].  We could always count on him ‘instructing’ us during Community meetings, even though we may not have been clear about what we were being instructed in. […].  I know he is now receiving the rewards of a life well lived.”

Another note speculated that Theophane might have liked to have the following, in Latin, on his tombstone.   The inscription is said to have been on a marker left behind in China in the sixteenth century when all missionaries were expelled:  “Ave viator—Congratulare mortuis—Condole vivis—Ora pro omnibus—Muare et tace.”   [Greetings, passer-by; congratulate the dead; console the living, pray for everyone; be quiet and be silent.]

Leã Gioã
* naêm thöù nhaát : 30 thaùng 10 naêm 2004
* 49 ngaøy : 21 thaùng 12 naêm 2003

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