Two young Asian martyrs - At Random

Yesterday, March 5, at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Pope solemnly declared among the Blessed several martyrs from various countries. Among them were two young men in their teens, one a Vietnamese, the other a Filipino.

The Filipino was Pedro Calungsod from the Visayas, who had joined the Spanish Jesuit, Father Luis de San Vitores, who went to Guam to evangelize the Marianas. Both were killed for being Christians. Father San Vitores was beatified several years ago. Now his young Visayan companion joins him in the ranks of the Beati.

Much of the credit for this beatification should go to Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu and his staff. Behind them was Father Juan M. H. Ledesma S.J., now 94 years old, who had done the research in the archives of several countries and established the facts of the martyrdom of Father San Vitores and his young Visayan companion. We now have two who have been honored by the Church as martyrs: St. Lorenzo Ruiz of Luzon and Blessed Pedro Calungsod of the Visayas.

The Vietnamese young man who was beatified yesterday is known only by his Christian name, Andrew. What is today a unified country named Viet Nam was originally three separate kingdoms: Tongking, Annam, and Champa. The man often called the "Apostle of Viet Nam" was Father Alexandre de Rhodes, a Jesuit priest from Avignon who had been expelled together with other Christians from Japan. He was the second missionary to enter the kingdom of Annam but the first to learn the language. He was the first to evangelize Tongking.

Alexandre de Rhodes incidentally is something of a national hero in Viet Nam for he is the inventor of what is called the "national language," meaning the Romanization of their script. Like the Chinese, the Vietnamese used characters or ideograms in writing; Father de Rhodes invented the system of writing the language in the Roman alphabet, but with phonetic marks to indicate tones -- a unique invention in linguistics.

Being the only priest in each of those kingdoms, he organized in each a group of catechists who were dispersed to various places. They would instruct converts, baptize them, and prepare them for the coming of the priest. These were men who made a vow of perpetual celibacy and lifelong service to the Church. Three of these catechists were martyred for the Faith in Annam. The first, in July 1644, was Andrew who was only 19 years old. He was beheaded. The following year, Ignatius and Vincent were also killed for being Christians and disseminators of Christian doctrine.

Father Alexandre de Rhodes managed to get hold of Andrew's severed head. He put it in a box and brought it with him in his long and adventure-filled journey back to Rome.

Young Andrew is really the protomartyr of what is now Viet Nam. He is of course not the last. Many other Vietnamese have suffered martyrdom in succeeding decades. May their blood bring the grace of Christ to that brave and highly cultured people.