
(Andrê Trần An Dũng (Lạc)),
priest; born in 1795 in Bắc Ninh, Tonkin; died on 21 Dec. 1839, Cầu Giấy,
Tonkin. When Dung Anh Tran was 12, his family moved to Hà Nội to find work.
Although his parents were pagan, they allowed their son to receive instruction
from a lay catechist so that he might benefit from the education generally
denied the poor. He was baptized Andrew at Vinh-Tri. He studied Chinese and
Latin, served as a catechist for ten years, and then was ordained to the
priesthood in 1823. He was a tireless preacher—both by word and example—in
several parishes until his arrest in 1835 as a Christian. His parishioners
gathered the money needed to purchase his release. Thereafter, he changed his
name from Dung to Lac in order to disguise his identity and went to another area
to continue his ministry. On 10 November 1839, he was again arrested with
another Vietnamese priest, Peter Thi. Both were freed once ransom was paid on
their behalf, but they were soon arrested again and taken to Hà Nội, where
priests of the MEP were singled out for especially harsh treatment and tortures.
They were beheaded in 1839, beatified in 1900, and canonized to sainthood in
1988.