During his papacy, Pope John Paul II canonized a group of 117 martyrs who died for the Catholic Faith in Vietnam during the nineteenth century. The group was made up of ninety-six Vietnamese, eleven Spanish missionaries, and ten French missionaries. Eight of the group were bishops, fifty were priests, and fifty-nine were lay Catholics including a 9-year-old child. Some of the priests were Dominicans, others were diocesan priests who belonged to the Paris Mission Society.
Today’s feastday (under the name St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions) and the witness of the lives of all of these martyrs, give testament to the sufferings inflicted on the Vietnamese Church. It may help those of us who associate Vietnam only with a 20th-century war to realize that the Cross has long been a part of the lives of the people of that country. The faith rooted in Vietnam’s soil has consistently proven stronger than any forces that willed to destroy it.
Let us pray. “O God, source and origin of all that is good, who kept the martyrs Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions faithful to the Cross of your Son, grant, through their intercession, that, spreading your love among our brothers and sisters, we may be your Son’s faithful followers both in name and in truth. Through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever. Amen.”
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Hoy celebramos la Fiesta de San Andrés Dung-Lac y sus Compañeros Mártires. Durante el siglo XVI y los siguientes, el pueblo del Vietnam escuchó el mensaje Evangélico, predicado, en primer lugar, por misioneros pertenecientes a diferentes Órdenes religiosas. El pueblo vietnamita recibe la predicación de los misioneros con gran piedad y alegría. Pero no tardó en sobrevenir la persecución. Durante los siguientes siglos muchos vietnamitas fueron martirizados, entre los cuales se cuentan obispos, presbíteros, religiosos y religiosas, catequistas, y hombres y mujeres laicos de distintas condiciones sociales.
Oremos. “O, bendecido San Andrés Dung Lac, tú que decidiste seguir a Dios en las buenas y en las malas y jamás renunciar a la fe cristiana, aunque eso te costara tu propia vida y te obligara a pasar por una gran cantidad de torturas, permítenos gozar de la misma persistencia y no dejes que las adversidades nos derroten. Por Cristo nuestro Señor. Amén.”
