Andrew of Phú Yên
Andreas (Anrê) von Phú Yên (* 1624/25/26 in Mằng Lăng , Tuy An , Phú Yên Province; † July 26, 1644 in Kẻ Chàm , Quảng Nam Province ) was the first Vietnamese to convert to the Christian faith due to his conversion was executed. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as a blessed and " protomartyr of Vietnam ".
Its original Vietnamese name has not been passed down. As a youth he joined the Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes , who had been doing missionary work in central Vietnam (then called Cochinchina ) since 1640 . In 1641 he was baptized by him and took the Christian name Andreas . In the following years he became a catechist (religion teacher) and supported De Rhodes as a local assistant.
The ruler of the region, the Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Phúc Lan , had initially tolerated the Christian missionary in his territory, but at the beginning of 1644 he came to the conclusion that his growing number of supporters could pose a threat to his rule. De Rhodes fell out of favor and was arrested, Christianity banned. As a prisoner, he witnessed the execution of his assistant Andreas: Since he refused to publicly renounce his belief, he was sentenced to death by the local governor as a deterrent. On July 26th, when he was about nineteen, he was executed by thrusting a spear and then beheading.
De Rhodes was finally exiled from the country on pain of death in 1645 and went to Macau , taking Andreas' remains with him as relics . Presumably while still in captivity, he had written a 16-page Portuguese-language report in which he described the martyrdom of his supporter. After his return to Europe he expanded the description extensively and published an Italian account of the events in 1652 and a French 109-page account the following year. This text served the later Spanish and French missionaries in Vietnam as a basis for spreading the devotion to Andrew.
In 1892 the Paris Mission built a neo-Gothic church dedicated to him in Andreas' hometown Mằng Lăng .
On March 5, 2000 Andreas was of Phú Yên by Pope John Paul II. During a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica beatified (together with Pedro Calungsod , Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung , the proto-martyrs of Brazil and the Märtyrinnen of Nowogródek ). He was one of the patrons of World Youth Day 2002 .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ on the location of Kẻ Chàm see: Roland Jacques: Portuguese Pioneers of Vietnamese Linguistics / Pionniers Portugais de la Linguistique Vietnamienne , Orchid Press, 2002, pp. 25f, 81, 225
- ^ Paul Burns: Butler's Saints of the Third Millennium: Butler's Lives of the Saints: Supplementary Volume , Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005, pp. 186f
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↑ Portuguese: Relacão do glorioso Martirio de Andre Cathequista Protomartir de Cochinchina alanceado, e degolado em Cachão noa 26 de Julho de 1644 tende de Idale dezanove annos ;
Italian: Relatione della morte di Andrea Catechista che primo de Christiani nel regno di Cocincina e stato ucciso da gl'infedeli in odio della fede, alli 26. Di Luglio, 1644 ;
French: La Glorieuse Mort d'André catechiste de la Cochinchine, qui a le premier versé son sang pour la querelle de Jesus-Christ, en cette nouvelle Eglise - ↑ Peter C. Phan: Mission and Catechesis: Alexandre de Rhodes & Inculturation in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam , Orbis Books, 2015, Chapter 3 (The Missionary Strategies of Alexandre de Rhodes)
- ↑ Dân Trí: Thăm nhà thờ cổ nhất Việt Nam, “đọc” cuốn sách quốc ngữ đầu tiên , September 14, 2010 (accessed in May 2017, with pictures)
- ↑ Beatificazione del Santo Padre Giovanni Paolo II , in: vatican.va
- ^ Message from John Paul II to the XVII. World Youth Day
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Andrew of Phú Yên |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Vietnamese martyr, blessed of the Roman Catholic Church |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1625 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mằng Lăng, Tuy An , Phú Yên Province |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 26, 1644 |
| Place of death | Kẻ Cham, Quảng Nam Province |