Ngô Đình Khả

Ngô Đình Khả (1850-1925) was the father of South Vietnam's first President, Ngô Đình Diệm (1901–63), and of Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (1897-1984). Other sons were Ngô Đình Khôi, Ngô Đình Nhu, Ngô Đình Cẩn and Ngô Đình Luyện. Khả also had three daughters.^[1]

Michael Ngô Đình Khả was a son of James Ngô Đình Niêm, a mandarin and Ursula Khoa. His father was from the village of Kẻ Đợi (tên chữ: Đại Phong), present-day in Phong Thủy, Quảng Bình and his mother was from Phường Đúc, Huế. It is likely that the ancestral home of Ngô family was in Sơn Tây or Nam Định in northern Vietnam. After his first wife Magdalene Chĩu died, Khả was married to Anna Nguyễn Thị Thân. They had eight sons (including two died in infant age) and three daughters.^[2]

Of his sons, only Thục and Luyện avoided losing their lives during the political upheavals in Vietnam; Thục emigrated to the United States. Cardinal François Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận was Khả's grandson. He served as the Minister of Rites and Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Thành Thái (1889–1907).

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