Antoine Nguyễn Văn Thiện (13 March 1906 – 13 May 2012) was a Vietnamese
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
bishop and the oldest of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
at 106 years of age. He was also one of the last living bishops to have served in
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...
.
Born in Cái Cồn, in the
Sóc Trăng province
Sóc Trăng (, ) was a former province in the Mekong Delta of Southern Vietnam, with its capital in Sóc Trăng. The province occupies an area of and has a population of approximately 1,213,400.
Etymology
Sóc Trăng was known as Ba Xuyên du ...
of
French Cochinchina
French Cochinchina (sometimes spelled ''Cochin-China''; ; , chữ Hán: ) was a colony of French Indochina from 1862 to 1949, encompassing what is now Southern Vietnam. The French operated a plantation economy whose primary strategic product wa ...
, Thiện was ordained a priest on 20 February 1932. He was appointed the bishop of
Vĩnh Long
Vĩnh Long ɨn˨˩˦:lawŋ˧˧is a city and the capital of Vĩnh Long Province in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Geography
Vĩnh Long covers and has a population of 200,120 (as of 2018). The name was spelled 永 隆 ("eternal prosperity") in the form ...
in November 1960 and received episcopal consecration in January 1961. He resigned that position in 1968 and was appointed a
titular bishop
A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese.
By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...
of Hispellum the same month. He became the oldest living Roman Catholic bishop on 6 October 2005, with the death of Bishop Ettore Cunial at age 99.
Thiện died in
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionGéry Leuliet then became the oldest living Catholic bishop."Mgr Gery Leuliet, doyen de l'épiscopat mondial" '' La Croix'', 15 May 2012