LAITY HID THEIR HUNTED PRIESTS

THE immense tragedy of the Christians of Indo-China had been preceded by every promise of a wonderful flowering of the Faith.
By the year 1819 this had become one of the most flourishing mission fields ever known, with four Bishops, 25 European missionaries, 180 native priests, 1,000 catechists and 1,500 nuns.
But in the following year a new Annamite Emperor, Minh-mang, launched an attack to wipe the Church off the map.
On the Feast of the Epiphany in 1833 he issued an edict calling upon all the Christians to renounce the Faith and demonstrate their apostacy by trampling on the crucifix. All teachers of religion were to be hounded down, the ports closed to new missionaries, and special troops were sent out to hunt for priests on the run.
The killings began.
As in England in persecution times, the hunted priests went from place to place saying Mass in secret, and like so many heroes and heroines in England. the native laity everywhere, " in spite of dungeon, fire and sword," sheltered and protected them.
NUN MARTYRS
After eight years there was some relief simply because a new Emperor had not the energy of his predecessor. but the next ruler resumed the attack in all its ferocity. In July, 1856, a general massacre began.
One incident in this revival of bloodshed was the burning of a Christian town and the murder of all its inhabitants.
Though France and Spain sent out a joint expedition in 1858, four more Bishops, 28 Dominicans and thousands of laity were tortured and executed.
Altogether, between 1857 and 1862 the persecutors killed 115 Annamite priests—one in three of the total100 nuns and more than 5,000 laity.
And this was only part of the story. The prisons were filled by Christians who refused—cheerfully as well as heroically—to apostatise. Eighty convents and 100 towns populated by Christians were destroyed, and thousands of their dispersed inhabitants perished from cruelty or starvation.
A treaty between France and the Emperor in 1862 brought peace to the Christians in the South. and soon thousands of pagans were seeking baptism.
But Tong-king was beyond effective French influence. The two
vicariates there were reduced to ruins and the butchering continued.
A complete change in this area came in a matter of hours. when the Emperor, faced by a victorious revolutionary army, called upon his Christian victims to join his forces. The persecution suddenly ceased.
After eight years, however. the whole tragic story was threatened again, when in the early days of 1884 troops were sent throughout the country to destroy the Church and obliterate the Christians.
But in the following year France entered into another treaty—and the persecution ended.
In no part of the country had the Christians escaped. They were pursued even into remote forests. and there European priests, native priests and thousands of Christians were put to death.