Blessed Andrew of Phú Yên

Blessed Andrew of Phú Yên was a young Vietnamese lay catechist and the first martyr of the Church in Vietnam. He was killed in 1644, at about nineteen years of age, because he would not renounce his faith. The Church commemorates him on July 26.

He was born in 1625 or 1626 in the province of Phú Yên, in what is now the Diocese of Qui Nhơn. He was raised by his widowed mother, Joan. He was a boy of poor health, but bright and inclined to goodness. At his mother’s insistent request the Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes, a missionary in Cochinchina, took him among his pupils, and Andrew soon surpassed the others in the study of Chinese script.

At about fifteen he was baptized together with his mother. A year later Father de Rhodes received him among his co-workers. After further formation Andrew joined the association of catechists called the House of God (Maison Dieu), whose members pledged to devote their whole lives to the service of the Gospel and to helping the missionaries. He stood out for his humility and his care for the sick. Father de Rhodes wrote of him that he had never met a novice or religious so diligent and so pure in thought.

At that time the authorities began to forbid the spread of Christianity and to persecute local catechists in particular. On July 25, 1644, soldiers seized Andrew. Beaten and bound, he was brought before the governor of the city, who tried to turn him away from the faith. Andrew answered that he was a Christian and ready to endure suffering to keep the faith, and that torment and death for it would be his greatest glory. He was sentenced to death.

On the evening of the next day, July 26, 1644, he was led through the streets of the town of Kẻ Chàm to the place of execution. A crowd followed him, admiring his courage and joy. Andrew urged the Christians to remain firm in the faith, not to grieve over his death, and to support him with their prayers. On the way to martyrdom he repeated the words: “Let us return love for love to our God, let us return life for life.” He was pierced with a lance and then beheaded. Before the final blow he called out the name of Jesus in a loud voice.

The martyr’s body was taken to Macau and buried there with reverence, and six months later the canonical process began there. Father de Rhodes described his death in a book published in Paris in 1653. John Paul II beatified him on March 5, 2000, in Saint Peter’s Square, together with forty-three other servants of God, and presented him to the Church in Vietnam as a model. Pope Francis recalled him among the young saints in the exhortation Christus vivit, and in 2025, on the 400th anniversary of his birth, Leo XIV called him the patron of catechists.