The Lady of the Sacred Mother of Mount Sam and the story of mortgaging the lives of three generations of relatives to save the people.

According to folklore from Chau Doc (An Giang province), the name Huynh Thi Phu is not only associated with the wealth of the Le Cong family but also symbolizes a "heroine" who dared to mortgage the lives of her entire family to provide food for the poor.

The pioneering family lineage in the border region.

The town of Chau Doc today is a land with a history spanning hundreds of years, associated with illustrious figures such as Nguyen Huu Canh and Thoai Ngoc Hau. However, few people know that to create the prosperous border region it is today, the Le Cong family (originally from Thanh Hoa) played a huge role in reclaiming land and establishing settlements from the 18th century.

During the Nguyen Dynasty, this family was so highly respected that its two founding ancestors, Le Cong Thoan and Le Cong Bich, were bestowed the titles of "Earthly and Later Sages." They not only contributed to the development of the land but also donated land for building schools and markets, and for maintaining peace and security. However, the most "powerful" and compassionate figure in the family was a woman: Mrs. Huynh Thi Phu.

A life-or-death "contract" with the imperial court.

The story goes that the Chau Doc region was once plagued by incessant floods. From July to November in the lunar calendar, water from the upstream poured down, turning the fields white with mud, and the poor people suffered extreme hunger and thirst. The height of this suffering was when parents, overwhelmed by hunger and hardship, had to abandon their children in the forest or build rafts and set them adrift on the Hau River in the faint hope that someone would rescue them.

Witnessing that scene, Mrs. Huynh Thi Phu took extraordinary actions: Opening her family's granary to provide emergency relief to flood victims. Building a "community house": Sending people in boats out into the river and forest to find and rescue abandoned children to raise and educate them. Pledged her life as collateral: When her family's granary ran out, she decided to borrow rice from the imperial reserve in Chau Doc.

At that time, the imperial granary was untouchable. To gain approval from Hue, Mrs. Phu signed a strict agreement: If she failed to deliver the rice on time, she and her entire Le Cong family would face the punishment of "extermination of three generations."

Despite the family's panic, Mrs. Phu remained calm and reassured them. Her gamble with her life earned the approval of the imperial court. Fortunately, thanks to the fertile soil after the floods and the villagers' cooperative farming in gratitude, the harvests were always bountiful the following year. Mrs. Phu kept her promise, delivering every grain of rice and ensuring the safety of her entire family through many devastating floods.

The legacy of the woman who captivated everyone.

Besides providing relief from hunger, Mrs. Huynh Thi Phu was also a generous benefactor in education and healthcare: Building a medical clinic: Inviting renowned doctors to provide free treatment for the poor. Opening literacy classes: Hiring teachers to teach classical Chinese so that children in border areas would not be illiterate. Relocating Chau Phu Temple (1926): When the French colonialists intended to demolish the temple to build a hospital, she mobilized the people to contribute and move the temple to its current location at the beginning of Chau Doc market to preserve the place of worship for Nguyen Huu Canh.

The Le Cong family was therefore granted the special privilege by the Nguyen dynasty to worship the High-Ranking Minister Nguyen Huu Canh right in their family's ancestral temple – a rare honor bestowed upon a civilian family.

The story of Mrs. Huynh Thi Phu is not only an anecdote about compassion, but also a lesson in the strength of character of Southern Vietnamese women: decisive, courageous, and always placing the fate of the people above personal gain.

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