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Also known as: Andrew
Dung Lac An Tran; Anreā Duõng Laļc
St. Andrew was one of 117 martyrs who met death in Vietnam between 1820
and 1862. Members of this group were beatified on four different occasions
between 1900 and 1951. Now all have been canonized by Pope John Paul II.
Christianity came to Vietnam (then three separate kingdoms) through the
Portuguese. Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615.
They ministered to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan.
The king of one of the kingdoms banned all foreign missionaries and tried
to make all Vietnamese apostatize by trampling on a crucifix. Like the
priest-holes in Ireland during English persecution, many hiding places
were offered in homes of the faithful.
Severe persecutions were again launched three times in the 19th century.
During the six decades after 1820, between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics
were killed or subjected to great hardship. Foreign missionaries martyred
in the first wave included priests of the Parish Mission Society, and
Spanish Dominican priests and tertiaries.
Persecution broke out again in 1847 when the emperor suspected foreign
missionaries and Vietnamese Christians of sympathizing with the rebellion
of one of his sons.
The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old,
executed in 1862. That year a treaty with France guaranteed religious
freedom to Catholics, but it did not stop all persecution.
By 1954 there were over a million and a half Catholicsabout seven percent
of the populationin the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent.
Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands,
homes and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still
833,000 Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south,
Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in
centuries, their numbers swelled by refugees.
During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the north, and
again moved to the south in great numbers. Now the whole country is under
Communist rule.
Born: c.1785 in Vietnam
Died: beheaded on 21 December 1839 in Hanoi, Vietnam for the offense
of being a priest
Beatified: 27 May 1900 by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized: 19 June 1988 by Pope John Paul II
source:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1209
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