The Vietnamese Martyrs fall into several groupings: those of the
Dominican and
Jesuit missionary era of the 18th century, and those killed in the politically inspired
persecutions of the 19th century. A representative sample of only 117 martyrs, including 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish Dominicans, and 10 French members of the
Paris Foreign Missions Society (Missions Etrangères de Paris; MEP), were beatified on four separate occasions: 64 by
Pope Leo XIII on May 27, 1900; eight by
Pope Pius X on May 20, 1906; 20 by
Pope Pius X on May 2, 1909; and 25 by
Pope Pius XII on April 29, 1951. From 1925 to 1990, the Vietnamese Church commemorated the feast of the Vietnamese Martyrs on the first Sunday of September. The memorial was then assigned to 24 November in the
General Roman Calendar. A young Vietnamese Martyr,
Andrew of Phú Yên, was beatified in March 2000, by Pope John Paul II. Phú Yên is also known as the protomartyr or first martyr of Vietnam with his execution on July 26, 1644, at the age of 19.
Martyrs of the Dominican and Jesuit missionary era of the 18th century Six of the canonised martyrs died during the 18th century. and families and villages which subscribed to Christianity were obliterated.
The Nguyễn Campaign against Catholicism in the 19th century The Catholic Church in Vietnam was devastated during the
Tây Sơn rebellion in the late 18th century. During the turmoil, the missions revived, however, as a result of cooperation between the French Vicar Apostolic Pigneaux de Behaine and Nguyen Anh. After Nguyen's victory in 1802, he was grateful for the assistance received and ensured protection for missionary activities. However, only a few years into the new emperor's reign, there was growing antipathy among officials against Catholicism and missionaries reported that it was purely for political reasons that their presence was tolerated. Tolerance continued until the death of the emperor and the new emperor,
Minh Mang, succeeding to the throne in 1820. Converts began to be harassed by local governments without official edicts in the late 1820s. In 1831, the emperor passed new laws regulating religious groupings in Vietnam, and Catholicism was then officially prohibited. In 1832, the first act occurred in a largely Catholic village near
Hue, with the entire community being incarcerated and sent into exile in Cambodia. In January 1833, a new kingdom-wide edict was passed calling on Vietnamese subjects to reject the religion of Jesus and required suspected Catholics to demonstrate their renunciation by walking on a wooden cross. Actual violence against Catholics, however, did not occur until the
Lê Văn Khôi revolt. the officer and soldiers that captured him were greatly rewarded (about 3 kg of silver was distributed out to all of them), as were the villagers that had helped to turn him over to the authorities. and spoke in similar terms to the
Cardinals assembled in consistory in April 1840, referring to a number of specific missionaries and local converts executed for their faith. In Nhu Ly near Hue, an elderly Catholic doctor named Simon Hoa was captured and executed. He had been sheltering a missionary named Charles Delamotte, whom the villagers had pleaded with him to send away. The village was also supposed to erect a shrine for the state-cult, which the doctor also opposed. His status and age protected him from being arrested until 1840 when he was put on trial, and the judge pleaded (due to his status in Vietnamese society as both an elder and a doctor) with him to publicly recant; when he refused, he was publicly executed. ==List of Vietnamese Martyrs==