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Statue of the French missionary, Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine, the Bishop of Adran, in front of the cathedral.
The bishop was instrumental in helping Nguyen Anh unify the nation. in 1802, Nguyen Anh became the Emperor
known as Gia Long. For further information, see
The Fall of an Empire.
The bishop died in 1799, and is buried in Saigon's Gia Dinh suburb.
A statue of The Virgin stands in this spot now.
The Monseigneur came back to France with Khanh prince to get help from Louis XVI at Versaille. He wanted to help the future Gia Long king to fight the Tay son revolution. By the treaty of 1787 Mgr Pigneau could have (in theory) some help from Pondichery governor : the Comte of Conway. But this man refused to give boats and soldiers, and only some frenchs of this colony went to Indochina by their own means.
It is intersting to know that the Conway Comte went in United States during the Independance war with Lafayette, but really he was a bad man (traitor and opportunist) and came back ashamed to France befor going to our Indian colonies.
Monseigneur Pigneau de Behaine died in 1799 during the battle of Qui Nhon. He was buried near Saigon. The ceremony was fantastic : the whole Gia Long family, a lot of soldiers, (about 50 000 people which is enormous) and 1200 war elephants.
The monument was destroyed by the municipality in 1983.
The statue of the Monseigneur in front the post office was installed in 1902. -- M. Pinet
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