1. Where is the La Ma Church?
The Roman Church is located in Huong Nhuong Commune, Giong Trom District, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam. It is about 27 km southeast of Ben Tre City and about 110 km southwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
2. How is the La Ma Church unique?
The center of the sanctuary is the La Ma Church with a length of 35m, a width of 16m and a bell tower of 19m. At the place where the Virgin Mary appeared, there is now a memorial built at the location of Mr. Bien Hat’s house in the past. It is about 500m from the Church towards the La Ma River so that visitors can see the Virgin Mary’s image more clearly.
The La Ma Church was founded in 1951 by Bishop Peter Ngo Dinh Thuc. This church is a place to worship the image of the Virgin Mary that was submerged in the canal for 3 months. Although being submerged in water for 3 months caused the image to become blurred and discolored. But then, the image gradually became clear as before.
Catholics believe that this miracle is due to the blessing of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Therefore, they built the La Ma Church here to worship the Virgin Mary. The parishioners here named her Mother of Perpetual Help.
This church is also an extremely attractive cultural, historical and religious destination in Ben Tre in particular and Vietnam in general. This helps promote the tourism services of the Southwest region to develop more and more.
3. How to get to the La Ma Church?
The La Ma Church is not too far from the center of Ben Tre city. Moreover, the transportation infrastructure here is also quite convenient and developed. Therefore, you can easily get here by means such as motorbike, bus or taxi.
There are three ways to travel to the La Ma Church:
3.1 The first way:
Travel on the big national way of 885. It is about 24km from the city center. From Nguyen Dinh Chieu street travel along Chet Say Bridge of Giong Trom District, then you travel straight along between the 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 the La Ma Church. So you should ask local people to easily reach the church.
From the main church, you travel more than 3km to reach where to have back the photo of Our Lady with a worship house. This route visitors can pass through Nguyen Thi Dinh Mrs memorial site where visitors can stop to visit and learn more of this famous woman in Vietnam.
3.2 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 visitors can stop and call on to visit the temple of Lieutenant-General Dong Van Cong.
3.3 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 cement road of the gardens. This is a very beautiful road, cool with a lot of green trees and using a 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. You can find the way to get here.
4. History of the formation of the La Ma church
- In 1930, the parish of Cai Bong Church was also one of the second largest churches in Ben Tre. He came to establish Son Doc parish and gave this church the picture of “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”. At that time, people called this church Bau Doi Chapel.
- In 1947, due to the war, parishioners had to migrate to other places with more security to make a living.
- Bau Doi parish was established in 1949.
- In early 1950, Bishop Ngo Dinh Thuc renamed it La Ma parish. The picture of Our Lady became the mascot of La Ma parish. And this church is therefore also called La Ma church.
5. The story of the La Ma church
The church is famous for its “Roman miracle” which is extremely mysterious and sacred. That is the story about the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help resurrected after three months lying in the canal and lost. The story is summarized as follows:
The La Ma Church was 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 canals and has been flooded all year round. During the time of moving for the war, Mr Nguyen Van Hat was a member in the church who gave this picture 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.
Three months later, an old woman in Cao Dai named Vo Thi Luong was fishing in the fields and found the picture in a canal. At this time, the picture was rotten, discolored, covered in mud and was brought home by Mr Thanh to keep.
After a while, Bau Doi was again engulfed in smoke and chaos. But the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help appeared quite clearly. She looked radiantly beautiful, surprising everyone, although only her hat was still missing. Since then, people have been spreading rumors about the strange image and pilgrims from everywhere have come to see it with their own eyes and believe in it.
6. Interior decoration of the La Ma church
Although the architecture and grounds of the church are quite simple. This place is always crowded with people coming to visit. And attend mass and express gratitude to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. When traveling on a pilgrimage to the La Ma church, you will have the opportunity to see with your own eyes the solemn and sacred image of the Virgin Mary. The image recreates the image of the beautiful, sharp Virgin Mary, next to the Child Jesus, surrounded by angels in eye-catching costumes.
The image is considered a treasure, the soul of the La Ma church. There are many stories that the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help has helped and blessed many people. Whether they are parishioners or people of other religions, they have overcome many hardships and illnesses. The good news spread far and wide, so this place is sought after by believers everywhere to seek refuge and give thanks.
7. Activities of the La Ma Church
The La Ma Church will be the place to hold weekly mass for parishioners here. Because this is a large pilgrimage center in Vietnam, when there are pilgrimage groups coming. They performed the ceremony by the parish priest in the main hall of the church. Usually, the mass will take place on Saturdays and Sundays at the beginning of the month. In addition, the 13th of the middle of the month is a milestone that you should note if you want to attend this ceremony during your trip.
8. Enjoying Ben Tre specialties when visiting the La Ma Church
When traveling to the La Ma church, you will enjoy the wonderful flavors of many delicious rustic dishes. Such as: Braised Goby fish in coconut water, braised duck, grilled eel with scallion oil, grilled snakehead fish. Or coconut rice, braised fish in clay pot, coconut worms, fish sauce with pork belly, My Long rice paper.
9. Accommodation when visiting the La Ma church
When traveling to this beautiful and meaningful spiritual place. You can refer to some accommodations in Ben Tre city below:
- Charming Countryside Homestay. Address: 208D Hamlet 4, Nhon Thanh, Ben Tre City, Ben Tre.
- Ben Tre Garden Farmstay. Address: Group 10, Phuoc Xuan Hamlet, Chau Thanh, Ben Tre.
- Diamond Stars Ben Tre Hotel. Address: 140 Hung Vuong, Ward 3, Ben Tre, Ben Tre Province.
- Innerzen Riverside homestay Ben Tre. Address: 369C, Ward 2B, Nhon Thanh Commune, Ben Tre, Ben Tre Province.
- Ben Tre Riverside Resort. Address: 708 Nguyen Van Tu, Ward 7, Ben Tre City, Ben Tre.
- Mekong Home. Address: Hamlet 9, Phuoc Long Commune, Giong Trom District, Ben Tre.
- Mango Home Riverside. Address: My Thanh, Giong Trom, Ben Tre.
- Dong Khoi Hotel. Address: 16 Hai Ba Trung, Ward 2, Ben Tre City, Ben Tre.
The La Ma church is not only a sacred pilgrimage center, but it is also an extremely famous tourist destination. With updated and useful information about Ben Tre travel experiences, which Origin Vietnam – a professional tour operator, has just shared in the above article. We will accompany you on the Mekong delta tour to visit and admire this unique church with interesting stories and memorable experiences.
Source Images: Internet
