Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs

Catholic Christianity reached Vietnam in the 16th and 17th centuries, and from 1745 to 1862, above all under the emperors Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị and Tự Đức, Christians were repeatedly persecuted; historians estimate that many tens of thousands died. In 1988 John Paul II canonized 117 of them: 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish Dominicans and 10 French missionaries — bishops, priests, catechists and lay people, among them soldiers, doctors and mothers. Andrew Dũng Lạc, born about 1795 in the north, was a catechist and then a priest; arrested several times, he was ransomed by his parishioners and took the name Lạc to avoid detection. He was beheaded in Hanoi on 21 December 1839, together with the priest Peter Thi.