24 November - Saint Andrew Dũng-Lạc, born in 1795 and died in Hanoi on 21 December 1839, was a Vietnamese Catholic priest who was executed by decapitation during the reign of Minh Mạng. André Dũng-Lạc is one of the 117 martyrs of Vietnam.
Between the 18th and 19th centuries, between 130,000 and 300,000 Catholics were killed for their faith. In five years, from 1857 to 1862, about 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith; about 215 priests, men and women religious and about 40,000 faithful were arrested and imprisoned or exiled. The 117 martyrs of Vietnam are mostly Vietnamese; some are Spanish or French :
- 96 are of Vietnamese origin: 37 priests, 14 teachers, one seminarian and 44 lay people ;
- 11 are of Hispanic origin: 6 bishops and 5 Dominican priests;
- 10 are of French origin: two bishops and eight priests from the Foreign Missions of Paris (MEP).
Among these martyrs is a lay woman, Agnès Lê Thi Than. They were martyred in the name of their Christian faith during the reign of the following kings :
- 2 under the reign of Trinh Doanh (1740-1767) ;
- 2 under the reign of Trinh Sam (1767-1782) ;
- 2 by decree of King Canh Thinh (1782-1802) ;
- 58 under King Minh Mạng (1820-1841);
- 3 under King Thiệu Trị (1841-1847) ;
- 50 under King Tự Đức (1847-1883).
These 117 martyrs were beatified by the Catholic Church in four phases :
- 64 on 27 May 1900, by Pope Leo XIII;
- 8 on 20 May 1906, by Pope Pius X;
- 20 on 2 May 1909, by Pope Pius X;
- 25 on 28 April 1951, by Pope Pius XII.
While the canonisation was carried out in one go on 19 June 1988, by Pope John Paul II.
