St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc & Companions

Between 1745 and 1862 an estimated 130,000 Christians were killed in Vietnam under successive waves of persecution. Of these, 117 were canonized together by John Paul II in 1988 — Vietnamese laypeople, catechists, and priests, alongside European missionaries from the Dominican and Foreign Mission societies. Andrew Dũng-Lạc, a peasant convert and parish priest, gives his name to the group. Their feast honors a Church born of native blood.

Andrew himself was born into a poor pagan family, received the faith from a catechist who raised and educated him, and was ordained a priest. Arrested twice, he was ransomed each time by his parishioners before being captured a final time and beheaded in 1839. His willingness to return to danger rather than abandon his flock embodied the spirit of the entire company of martyrs.

The 117 saints span three centuries and include bishops, mothers, soldiers, farmers, and children — a cross-section of an entire believing people. Their canonization affirmed that the Catholic faith in Vietnam was no foreign import but a living tradition written in the sacrifice of Vietnamese men and women on their own soil.