The 117 Holy Martyrs of Vietnam were canonized on June 19, 1988, by Pope St. John Paul II. Their feast day is November 24, though some of the martyrs who were beatified before the group’s canonization have other memorials.
There were multiple persecutions in Vietnam, and the 117 Holy Martyrs gave their lives to Christ over the course of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
The 117 martyrs celebrated on November 24 (as the feast of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions) also stand for between 100,000 and 300,000 martyrs in Vietnam; John Paul II canonized those whose names are known and unknown. The martyrs include foreign missionaries, lay people and clergy, including St. Andrew Dung-Lac. He was born in Vietnam 1795 and was baptized around age 12. He was ordained in 1823 and arrested multiple times before his eventual torture and martyrdom in Hanoi on December 21, 1839.
“Other waves of persecution followed Fr. Andrew’s death, just as they had preceded it,” the Vatican News site writes of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions. “Indeed, the Vietnamese faithful were subjected to some of the cruelest forms of martyrdom in the history of Christianity … But the baptized members of the Body of Christ in the land of Vietnam knew the voice of their Shepherd too well to betray Him. What the rulers of the land did to wipe out the Church, the Spirit of God used to give the Church deep and lasting roots among the Vietnamese people. By the end of the 20th century, Catholics were estimated at 10% of the Vietnamese population.
There were multiple persecutions in Vietnam, and the 117 Holy Martyrs gave their lives to Christ over the course of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
The 117 martyrs celebrated on November 24 (as the feast of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions) also stand for between 100,000 and 300,000 martyrs in Vietnam; John Paul II canonized those whose names are known and unknown. The martyrs include foreign missionaries, lay people and clergy, including St. Andrew Dung-Lac. He was born in Vietnam 1795 and was baptized around age 12. He was ordained in 1823 and arrested multiple times before his eventual torture and martyrdom in Hanoi on December 21, 1839.
“Other waves of persecution followed Fr. Andrew’s death, just as they had preceded it,” the Vatican News site writes of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions. “Indeed, the Vietnamese faithful were subjected to some of the cruelest forms of martyrdom in the history of Christianity … But the baptized members of the Body of Christ in the land of Vietnam knew the voice of their Shepherd too well to betray Him. What the rulers of the land did to wipe out the Church, the Spirit of God used to give the Church deep and lasting roots among the Vietnamese people. By the end of the 20th century, Catholics were estimated at 10% of the Vietnamese population.
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