ANNAMITI, MARTIRI. — This name refers to the one hundred and five 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, was beatified by Leo XIII on 27 May 1900, together with thirteen Chinese martyrs (v. CIANRESI, 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 during the period 1833–46, in the persecutions under the Annamite kings Minh-Manh, Thien-Tzi, Tu-Duc (v. INDOCINA FRANCESE). Among them, in chronological order of martyrdom, are the blessed François Gagelin, Joseph Marchand, Jean-Charles Cornay, Domingo Henares, DELEGAZIONE (v.), José Fernández, Jaccard (v.), Pierre Dumoulin-Borie, SCHÖFFLER, AGOSTINO (v.), and Louis Bonnard. Three other martyrs of the Order of Preachers, sacrificed during the same period—that is, the blessed Jerónimo Hermosilla, BAR-COCHEBA (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 eighteenth century belonging to the same Order, namely the blessed Francisco Gil de Federich, Matteo Alonzo Lenziniana, Jacinto Castaneda, and Vicente Liem da Pace.
The twenty Annamite martyrs who were beatified by Pius X on 2 May 1909, together with fourteen Chinese martyrs, also belong to this same period of persecution. In this group, along with the European blessed Etienne-Théodore Cuenot, Pierre-François Néron, and Jean-Téophane Vénard, are seven indigenous priests and the virgin Agnese Le Thi Thang.
Other beatification proceedings are under way, although it has been possible to institute only a few of them for the thousands of heroes of the Gospel of the Church of Annam.