Blessed Andrew of Phu Yen

Andrew of Phú Yên (1625 – 26 July 1644) is known as the "Protomartyr of Vietnam." Baptized in 1641, he was a dedicated assistant to Jesuit missionaries and was thus arrested in the persecution of Christians launched in 1644. After refusing to abjure the faith, he was put to death in Kẻ Chàm. Andrew was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 5, 2000. His feast day is 26 July. Andrew came from the province of Trấn Biên (Phú Yên), today in Vietnam. On the insistence of his mother, Jeanne, Alexandre de Rhodes, a French Jesuit missionary, agreed to include him among his students. Andrew soon surpassed his fellow pupils. Together with his mother, he received Baptism in 1641. He would have been about 15 years of age, having been born in 1625 or 1626. At the time of his death in 1644, he was 19 or 20. In 1642 Andrew become one of Alexander de Rhodes' closest co-workers and, after a year of further formation, he joined the Maison Dieu ("House of God") catechist association which de Rhodes had instituted. Its members made a public promise to spend their entire lives serving the Catholic Church by helping priests and spreading the Gospel. Before the end of July 1644, Mandarin Ong Nghe Bo returned to the province which he governed and where Andrew was living. He had orders from the Nguyễn lord to prevent the expansion of Christianity in his kingdom. De Rhodes, unaware of the Mandarin's intentions, paid him a courtesy visit, but was quickly informed that the Nguyễn lord was angered at the great number of Cochinchina who were following the Christian faith. De Rhodes must therefore leave the country and no longer teach Christian doctrine to the Cochinchina; since the latter were the subjects of the emperor, they would incur the most severe penalties. De Rhodes left the palace and went directly to the prison where an elderly catechist was already incarcerated. Meanwhile, the Mandarin had sent soldiers to Fr.