Andrew Dung-Lac was among the 117 Martyrs of Vietnam killed by government officials during persecutions to suppress European ideals and religious values in the 18th and 19th centuries. The group consisted of 96 Vietnamese and 21 foreign missionaries (11 Spanish and 10 French); the martyrs were bishops, priests and laypeople, including a woman. They endured horrible tortures in prison before being beheaded, crucified, quartered or burned alive for refusing to deny their faith. Andrew, a Vietnamese educated in Catholicism, became a catechist and priest. He was arrested and imprisoned with his companion, St. Peter Thi; they were beheaded in 1839. St. John Paul II canonized the martyrs as a group in 1988.
