VHM_0048

This Catholic chalice belonged to Phạm Thu Hảo, who brought it with her when she fled North Vietnam in 1954. Following France’s withdrawal from Indochina and the signing of the Geneva Accords, Vietnam was divided into two states: the Communist North and the Republic of Vietnam in the South. As a devout Vietnamese Catholic, Phạm Thu Hảo—like nearly 800,000 others—joined the mass migration southward to escape religious persecution under the new Communist regime in the North. The chalice traveled with her during the mass migration known as Tàu Há Mồm (“Passage to Freedom”), when nearly 800,000 people made the difficult journey south. The migration came in the wake of violent campaigns such as the 1953 Land Reform (Cải Cách Ruộng Đất), during which thousands of religious followers (người theo đạo)—including Vietnamese Catholics—and landowners were executed.