St. Andrew Dung-Lac

St. Andrew Dũng-Lạc was born around 1795 in Vietnam, of poor and originally non-Christian parents, and died a martyr on 21 December 1839 at Hanoi. Given over to the care of a catechist, he was baptized, and later ordained a priest, taking the name Lạc. He served the hidden Catholic communities of Vietnam during a time of intense persecution under the emperors, tirelessly ministering, evangelizing, and encouraging the faithful despite constant danger.

Arrested more than once and each time ransomed by his people, he was finally seized again and, refusing to trample on the cross or renounce Christ, was beheaded. He is honored as the representative and namesake of the Martyrs of Vietnam — a great multitude of some one hundred and seventeen priests, religious, and laypeople, Vietnamese and foreign missionaries alike, who gave their lives for the faith over more than two centuries — canonized together in 1988 by Pope St. John Paul II.