ANNAMITES, Martyrs. - Under this name are understood the one hundred and five who were beatified among the very numerous missionaries, priests and indigenous Christians martyred in the kingdoms of Annam, Cochinchina and Tonkin. A first group of sixty-four, including three bishops, seven European priests and twenty-four indigenous priests, were beatified by Leo XIII on 27 May 1900, together with thirteen Chinese martyrs (v. CINESI, MARTIRI).

With the exception of the blessed Emanuele Trieu (d. 17 Sept. 1798) and Giovanni Dat (d. 28 Oct. of an unspecified year), all the others were martyred in the period 1833-46, in the persecutions of the Annamite kings Minh-Manh, Thien-Tzi, Tu-

Duc (V. INDOCINA FRANCESE). Among these are, in chronological order of martyrdom: the blessed François Gagelin, Joseph Marchand, Jean-Charles Cornay, Domingo Henares, Clemente Ignacio Delgado (v.), José Fernández, François Jaccard (v.), Pierre Dumoulin-Borie, Augustin Schoeffler (v.), Louis Bonnard. Three other martyrs of the Order of Preachers, sacrificed in the same period, namely the blessed Jerónimo Hermosilla, Valentino Berri-Ochoa (v.), Pedro Almató and the indigenous catechist Giuseppe Khang, were beatified by Pius X on 20 Apr. 1906, together with the four martyrs of the 18th century belonging to the same Order, namely the blessed Francisco Gil de Federich, Matteo Alonzo Lenziniana, Jacinto Castaneda, and Vicente Liem da Pace.

To the same period of persecution belong also the twenty m. a. who were beatified by Pius X on 2 May 1909, together with fourteen Chinese martyrs. In this group, together with the Europeans the blessed Etienne-Théodore Cuenot, Pierre-François Néron, Jean-Téophane Vénard, are seven indigenous priests and the virgin Agnese Le Thi Thang.

Other beatification processes are in progress, although few of them could be prepared concerning the thousands of heroes of the Gospel of the Church of Annam.

Bibliography14 works

BIBL.: Acta Sanctae Sedis (1894), p. 190; (1898-99), p. 746; (1899-1900), pp. 495, 567; (1901-1902), pp. 685, 688; (1903-1904), p. 734; (1904-1905), p. 339; (1905-1906), pp. 98, 203, 237; AAS, 1 (1909), p. 452. - G. Clementi, Gli otto martiri tonchinesi dell'Ordine di s. Domenico solennemente beatificati da papa Pio X nell'anno MCMVI, Roma 1906; Raccolta di documenti autentici intorno alle persecuzioni della religione cristiana nell'Impero annamitico dal 1839 al 1862, Roma 1863; Anon., I martiri annamiti e cinesi (1797-1856) solennemente beatificati dalla santità di papa Leone XIII il 27 maggio dell'Anno santo MDCCCC, Roma 1900; J. Recorder, Vida y martirio de los XXVI mártires de la Misión Dominicana en el Tímg Kin..., Manila 1900; Anon., I venerabili Servi di Dio Stefano Teodoro Cuenot, vescovo, con trentadue compagni martiri annamiti e cinesi delle Missioni Straniere di Parigi e Francesco De Capillas, domenicano, primo martire della Cina, solennemente beatificato il 2 maggio 1909, ivi 1909; A. Launay, Les bienheureux martyrs de la Société des Missions Étrangères, Parigi 1929; v. also the bibliographies of the individual entries.

Romeo Bellotti

@incollection{ec1_annamiti_martiri, author = {Bellotti, Romeo}, title = {Annamiti, martiri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1366--1367}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/annamiti-martiri} }

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Annamites, Martyrs

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