“Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart Will Prevail”: Vietnamese Marianism and Anticommunism, 1940–1975

Marian devotionalism was the most popular faith practice among twentieth-century Vietnamese Catholics. Yet its contents were not uniform but reflected shifting realities of church history and Vietnamese history. In particular, the period 1940–1975 witnessed a monumental movement that associated Marianism with anticommunist nationalism among many Vietnamese Catholics. This development came from a combination of several interlocking factors, some global and some local. The development indeed reflects a pattern of interactions between the global and the local in the history of Vietnamese Marianism. It further illustrates the agency of Vietnamese Catholics, who welcomed ideas and beliefs from the global church yet also actively shaped them to further the destiny of their national church.