Mary Mother of God Cathedral. There are 600,000 Catholics in the Vung Tau/Ba Ria area. By 1670, there were already 300 Catholic families in Xích Lam, near Bà Rịa. Opposing the spread of Catholicism, authorities in Bà Rịa jailed hundreds of Vietnamese Catholics in the 19th century. When French troops attacked Bà Rịa in 1862, Vietnamese soldiers had to retreat, but not before torching the jails housing Catholics, thus burning alive 288 people. There's a Tomb Church, with names of these Catholic martyrs.