St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc and Companions (Vietnamese Martyrs)

Their story

Christianity came to Vietnam in the 1500s, and for nearly three hundred years Vietnamese Catholics endured waves of persecution. Many tens of thousands were killed for their faith, especially in the 1800s. On June 19, 1988, Pope St. John Paul II canonized 117 of these martyrs: 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish missionaries and 10 French missionaries. They included bishops, priests, seminarians, catechists and lay men and women, among them a mother of six children. The group is named for Andrew Dũng-Lạc, a Vietnamese priest born around 1795 to a poor family that was not Christian. As a boy he was taught by a catechist, was baptized, and later served as a catechist himself before being ordained a priest. He lived simply, prayed and fasted, and served his people with great zeal. He was arrested several times, and each time his parishioners raised money to free him. He even changed his name to Lạc to avoid capture. In 1839 he was arrested again and beheaded in Hanoi. The Vietnamese martyrs remind us that the faith we freely practice has been treasured by others at the cost of their lives.