Blessed Andrew of Phú Yên, the Protomartyr of Việt Nam, Commemorated by Pope Leo

Editor's Note: The recent floods in Việt Nam struck hardest in what was once Phú Yên Province, which is now incorporated into the newly formed Đắk Lắk Province. Four centuries ago, in July 1625, this very land gave birth to the country’s first Catholic martyr, Chân phước Anrê Phú Yên (Blessed Andrew of Phú Yên). His steadfast courage and unwavering faith have echoed across generations. Today, they stand as a profound source of strength and inspiration for the people of Phú Yên as they confront the devastation brought by the latest storms and rising waters.

In 17th-century Việt Nam, a figure was born who would cast a bright light, though tinged with the sorrow of youthful martyrdom, on the history of the Asian Catholic Church. Chân phước Anrê Phú Yên (Blessed Andrew Phú Yên, 1625–1644), known as the “protomartyr of Việt Nam,” represents not only the first blood shed for the faith in that nation. He remains an enduring symbol of how a young person can respond to Christ’s love with total dedication, even unto the sacrifice of life. 

His story, filled with missionary zeal and extraordinary purity of soul, continues to inspire generations of believers, and this year, on the 400th anniversary of his birth, he was movingly recalled by Pope Leo XIV in a video message addressed to Vietnamese catechists. “You are never alone,” the Pope urged, linking Andrew’s witness to the vitality of the local Church, enriched by more than 64,000 catechists who transmit the faith from generation to generation.

Humble origins

Blessed Andrew was born around 1625 in Phú Yên Province, a coastal region in south-central Việt Nam, then part of the realm ruled by the Nguyễn lords. He came from a modest family marked by an emerging Christian devotion. 

His mother, whose saint name is Gioanna (Jeanne), played a crucial role in his formation: she insisted that the French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes accept her son among his students. De Rhodes, one of the pioneers of evangelization in Asia, had arrived in Việt Nam in 1624 carrying with him the fire of the Gospel.

The young Andrew, endowed with a lively intelligence and a pure heart, quickly surpassed his fellow students. He showed a gift for languages, learning French with ease, and a natural ability to communicate the faith.

In 1641, at age sixteen, Andrew received baptism together with his mother, a moment that marked the beginning of his Christian life. From that day onward, he became a tireless assistant to the Jesuit missionaries.

Andrew accompanied Catholic priests to remote villages, translated catechetical texts from French into Vietnamese, taught doctrine to children and catechumens, and visited families to strengthen the young community. At a time when priests were few and persecution ever looming, Andrew embodied the role of the dedicated layman: a point of contact between the evangelical message and the local culture. 

His humility and zeal soon made him a model for the first Vietnamese Christians, in a country where Catholicism had arrived only a century earlier, thanks to European navigators.

The historical context, however, was hostile. Since the 16th century, European missionaries had introduced Christianity into Việt Nam, but the local dynasties, the Nguyễn in the south and the Trịnh in the north, saw the new faith as a threat to Confucian order and imperial authority. Yet conversions spread rapidly: by 1640, there were tens of thousands of baptized believers.

Andrew’s short life– he lived just 19 years–was a seed planted in that fertile soil, destined to grow into a tree of martyrs. Today, Việt Nam counts 117 saints and blesseds canonized or beatified for shedding their blood between the 17th and 19th centuries.

Martyrdom

The climax of Andrew’s life came in 1644, during one of the first major persecutions ordered by the Nguyễn lords. The governor of Andrew's province received orders to eradicate Christianity, which he regarded as a foreign heresy undermining the unity of the kingdom. Christians were forced to renounce their faith or face exile or death.

Andrew, who lived his catechetical vocation openly, was among the first to be arrested. Captured in the house of Father de Rhodes, he was brought before the authorities and subjected to brutal interrogations. Despite torture, beatings, chains, and threats of execution, the young man never wavered. “Let us return love for love to our God, life for life,” he repeated, paraphrasing words that would later inspire the beatification homily of John Paul II.

Imprisoned for months, Andrew did not retreat into suffering; on the contrary, he encouraged his cellmates, Christians and non-Christians alike, to remain steadfast in faith.

“Pray for me that I may be faithful to the end,” he pleaded, turning his suffering into an opportunity for communal witness. These moments of imprisonment reveal Andrew’s heart: a catechist who saw the Church not as a distant institution but as a Mystical Body in which one person’s suffering is shared by all.

On July 26, 1644, the sentence was pronounced: beheading. Escorted by soldiers through the streets of Kẻ Chàm (today part of Quy Nhơn), Andrew walked with serene steps, followed by a mixed crowd of Christians, foreigners, and curious pagans. 

Outside the city walls, in an open field, he stopped to offer a final farewell. Addressing those present, he urged the faithful: “Be strong in the faith, and help me with your prayers.” Then, kneeling, he cried out in a loud and clear voice: “Jesus!” The blade fell, and his blood, the first shed for Christ in Việt Nam, touched the earth. 

That final cry, “Jesus,” was not a lament but an act of praise, an echo of the name that had consecrated his entire and brief existence. Andrew’s martyrdom was not an isolated event but the beginning of a chain. 

Father de Rhodes, an eyewitness, described him in his writings as an “angel of faith,” and his death galvanized the Christian community, which continued to grow despite the persecutions. July 26 is his liturgical feast, and a monument in the diocese of Quy Nhơn commemorates that sacrifice.

Beatification and Legacy in the Universal Church

Nearly four centuries passed before the Church officially recognized his heroism. On March 5, 2000, during the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II beatified Andrew Phú Yên in St. Peter’s Square, proclaiming him “Protomartyr of Việt Nam.” 

In his homily, the pope emphasized: “The words he repeated as he walked toward martyrdom express what motivated his whole life: ‘Let us return love for love to our God, life for life.’”

This recognition placed Andrew among the young blesseds mentioned by Pope Francis in the apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit (2019), where he is presented as a model for young people: a teenager who, faced with imprisonment and death, chose to “say yes to Christ’s love to the very end.”

In Việt Nam, where there are about 5,000 priests for 7 million Catholics, catechists, often laypeople like him, are the driving force of pastoral life: they prepare people for the sacraments, enliven remote parishes, and visit families in the rice fields and mountains. 

His legacy is rooted in Vietnamese culture: faith transmitted in the family, resilience in suffering, and love for the homeland. As de Rhodes wrote, Andrew “was a son of his land who offered his life to make it holy.”

The Remembrance by Pope Leo XIV: A Message for Modern Times

In 2025, exactly 400 years after Andrew’s birth (1625), Pope Leo XIV chose to honor this figure with a moving and timely gesture. On July 25, the eve of the martyr’s feast, the pope sent a video message to Vietnamese catechists who were connected live from across Vietnam and abroad.

“With immense joy I greet you today, catechists of Việt Nam,” the pope began, expressing gratitude for their online participation, on the eve of the Youth Jubilee in Rome. “I am particularly grateful to be united in prayer in the presence of the holy relic of Blessed Andrew Phú Yên.”

Reflecting on the life of this “great son of Việt Nam,” Leo XIV highlighted how, after his baptism, Andrew became “an invaluable assistant to the Jesuit missionaries who brought the Gospel to Việt Nam.” 

Citing Christus Vivit, he recalled the martyrdom: “He was imprisoned for the faith, and because he refused to renounce it, he was killed. With his sacrifice at only 19 years of age, Andrew responded to Christ’s call: ‘love for love.’”

The Pope invoked his intercession so that catechists, amid trials, might follow the example of the young martyr. Turning his gaze to the Vietnamese Church, Leo XIV praised the 64,000 catechists “within and outside your country” as “a fundamental part of parish life.” 

For today’s Vietnamese youth, growing up amid the contradictions of a rapidly expanding economy and a political system that restricts religious expression, Andrew is not an abstract icon: he is a young man from their land, killed at 19 in 1644 for refusing to trample on the cross. 

His story speaks directly to the thousands of teenagers who, in village chapels or urban neighborhoods of Sài Gòn and Hà Nội, prepare for confirmation under the guidance of catechists, often in environments where openly manifesting the faith still requires discretion and courage.

In Việt Nam, Catholics number about 7 million (8% of the population), a minority that has maintained impressive vitality despite postwar hardships and current limitations: new churches can be built only with difficult-to-obtain permits, seminaries have strict entrance quotas, and public pastoral activities are monitored. 

Within this context, Vietnam’s  64,000 lay catechists, explicitly mentioned by Pope Leo XIV in his video message on July 25. 2025, form the backbone of the local Church. They ensure that the faith is transmitted within families, from the Mekong rice fields to northern mountain communities, often without the constant presence of a priest.

It was precisely to these catechists that Pope Leo XIV addressed his remembrance of Blessed Andrew Phú Yên on the 400th anniversary of his birth: “The Church sends you to be living signs of God’s love: humble servants like Blessed Andrew, full of missionary zeal.”

The Pope sought to emphasize that the young martyr’s sacrifice is not an episode of the past but a current model for those who still teach catechism in contexts where faith may bring social ostracism, workplace difficulties, or family pressure.

Blessed Andrew’s memory also nourishes the historical awareness of Vietnamese Catholics: the faith that arrived in the 16th century was never a “foreign religion” imposed from outside but became an integral part of national identity, transmitted above all through families and lay catechists. The parents and grandparents of many believers today endured postwar persecution; some spent years in re-education camps simply for being Christians.

That “heroic faith of your parents and grandparents who, like Blessed Andrew, bore witness in suffering,” in the exact words of Pope Leo XIV, is the foundation upon which the resilience of the Vietnamese Catholic community rests today. 

For this reason, when July 26 is celebrated each year in Quy Nhơn, Nha Trang, Sài Gòn, and in hundreds of parishes across the country, the feast of the Protomartyr is not merely a commemoration of a distant past: it renews the certainty that the silent, daily fidelity of catechists continues, four centuries later, carrying out the very same mission of Blessed Andrew Phú Yên.