Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and the 117 Martyrs of Vietnam (1745-1862)

The missionary establishment in Vietnam

Christian preaching took root in Vietnam from the end of the 16th century, then took shape with the Jesuit missionaries, including Alexandre de Rhodes, active from 1627. The conversion of many faithful, local priests and catechists soon produced an indigenous Church.^[4]

From 1630, imperial edicts forbade the Catholic religion. The country's first great martyrial figure is Andrew of Phú Yên, a young catechist beheaded on 26 July 1644; he was beatified on 5 March 2000 by Pope Saint John Paul II, and does not belong to the group of the 117.^[5]

The persecutions of the 19th century

The mass executions of the group of the 117 are concentrated especially under the reigns of Minh Mạng (1820-1841) and Tự Đức. According to the count transmitted by the sources of the Holy See and the modern notices, the 117 martyrs died between 1745 and 1862: two under Trịnh Doanh, two under Trịnh Sâm, two under Cảnh Thịnh, 58 under Minh Mạng, three under Thiệu Trị and 50 under Tự Đức.^[6]

The aim of the authorities was not only to expel foreign priests: it sought to uproot the faith from the elites and from the people. Christians who refused to trample underfoot an image of Christ or of the Virgin, to deny their baptism or to hand over a priest were arrested, tortured, then executed or left to die in prison.^[7]

The modes of torture recorded for the group are as follows: 75 beheaded, 22 strangled, 6 burned alive, 5 drawn and quartered and 9 died in prison as a result of tortures. Joseph Marchand, a missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions, underwent in 1835 the “torture of the hundred wounds” before being beheaded.^[8]

Who are the 117?

This is therefore not a “group of foreign priests”: the vast majority of the martyrs are Vietnamese, priests, catechists or laypeople, often simple villagers.^[9][10]

A child of Bắc Ninh who became a priest

Trần An Dũng was born in 1795 in the province of Bắc Ninh, in northern Vietnam. Around the age of twelve, his family settled in Hanoi. A catechist took him under his protection, instructed him in the faith and had him baptized under the name of Anrê (Andrew) Dũng.^[11]

He was ordained priest on 15 March 1823. His ministry took place in a context where Catholicism was already outlawed: he exercised it discreetly, catechized, administered the sacraments, risked arrest every day.^[12]

Arrests, ransom, new name

In 1835, he was arrested. The faithful ransomed him to have him released. On this occasion, the name of Lạc was added to him, whence the full name Andrew Dũng-Lac by which he is known today.^[13]

He was seized again in 1839, together with the priest Pierre Thí (Pierre Thi). Both were released a first time, then arrested again. They suffered torture, refused to deny the faith, and were beheaded on 21 December 1839 in Hanoi.^[14]

Before the courts and under torture, the martyrs confessed Christ and refused to trample the cross underfoot or to deny their baptism: this is the constant trait that the notices of the Holy See and the historians of Christian Vietnam retain from their interrogations.^[15]

The date of 21 December remains the proper date of Andrew Dũng-Lac in the martyrology; the common feast of the 117 martyrs was fixed on 24 November.^[16]

Four series of beatifications

The process of the martyrs of Indochina was conducted in series. Modern sources generally retain:

Certain notices proper to Andrew Dũng-Lac also indicate the date of 21 November 1900; this variant is linked to the calendar of the Roman celebrations of the first beatification. The canonical date most often retained for the series of Leo XIII is 27 May 1900.^[17][18]

Canonization on 19 June 1988

On 19 June 1988, in Rome, Pope Saint John Paul II canonized together Andrew Dũng-Lac and his 116 companions. A single common feast is assigned to them: 24 November. The proper dates of certain martyrs remain in the Roman martyrology (for example 21 December for Andrew Dũng-Lac, 10 December for other companions of Hanoi).^[19][20]

Patrons of Vietnam

On 14 December 1990, by the apostolic letter Si quidem cunctis, Pope Saint John Paul II proclaimed the holy martyrs of Vietnam principal patrons of the country before God. Their memory is for the Vietnamese Church a permanent reference of baptismal fidelity under persecution.^[21]

Calendar and pastoral use

The feast of 24 November appears in the Roman general calendar for the memorial of the 117 martyrs of Vietnam, under the leadership of Andrew Dung-Lac, priest. In pastoral practice, it is recommended not to reduce the day to a symbolic “saint of the day”: it celebrates a local Church that bore bloody witness, with priests, catechists and simple faithful.^[22]

The iconography of the martyrs of Vietnam often represents Andrew Dũng-Lac as a priest, with the palm of martyrdom or a cross, sometimes surrounded by his companions. Some groups are painted in the costume of the period, others in an older liturgical habit.^[23]

The spirituality that emerges from their martyrdom is that of baptismal fidelity unto blood, lived not by monks or hermits, but by diocesan priests, catechists, peasants, women of the family. Their example is invoked for the perseverance of persecuted Christians, the priestly vocation in Vietnam and the communion between local Churches and missionaries.

The Paris Foreign Missions, the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) and the Church of Vietnam preserve their memory with pilgrimages, votive masses and accounts of martyrs handed down in families. Modern reference works, such as those of Guy-Marie Oury and Jean Maïs, document this history from missionary and Vietnamese sources.^[24][25]

• Saint John de Brébeuf and companions: other missionary martyrs, celebrated on 19 October, whose memory joins that of the martyrs of Indochina.
• The martyrs of Ceuta: another group of martyrs, celebrated on 10 October, which illustrates fidelity unto blood.
• Saint Paul of the Cross: founder of the Passionists, whose spirituality of the Passion of Christ illuminates martyrdom.