Multiple Agents Involved in the Localization of Our Lady of La Vang: From a Mythic Figure to the Mother of Vietnam

Our Lady of La Vang is a version of the Virgin Mary that was first worshipped over a century ago at a place called La Vang in what is now Quảng Trị Province. Today, she is sometimes called the “Mother of Vietnam,” is represented wearing Vietnamese robes and is said to symbolize a supposed essential element of Vietnamese culture, the reverence of women. In other words, Our Lady of La Vang has been fully “localized.” However, the ways in which this happened are complex, and in this chapter, we discuss how scholars have explained the localization of Our Lady of La Vang, and Catholicism in Vietnam more generally, and then proceed to make our own analysis of this issue. In the end, we demonstrate that there have been multiple agents and agendas involved in the localization of Our Lady of La Vang. Further, these agents extend beyond Vietnam and include the Catholic church as well as members of the Vietnamese diaspora.