Today September 20

Today is the feast of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and 101 companions (died 1839 - 1846 and 1862 - 1867). Let's talk about Korea, after the Philippines, the most Christian nation in Asia, and one where the Christian population is overwhelmingly Catholic. Korea is unusual in that it was converted by (native) laymen . . . laymen and scholars. Lee Sung-hoon, a trader with China, brought back Catholic books which various Korean scholars read and were convinced were true. They baptized and married and catechized each other! They went on like this for awhile, but the notion and the desire for a priest grew and grew. They begged Peking for a priest and they got one, Father Chu Mun-mo, in 1795 -- one priest for the whole of Korea! He was only there for 6 years before he was martyred, along with 300 of his converts. But he never took a day off. So many were killed, but the government didn't get all of 'em. In 1837, the pope himself sent two priests from the Paris Foreign Mission Society to them. That doubled the previous priest population! These two only had two years before they, too, were martyred. They offered themselves hoping to spare the faithful, but no. The government tortured and killed not only them but 130 of the Korean Christians as well: 70 were beheaded and 60 strangled or beaten to death. Many were converts. Protasius Chong was one of them. A simple ropemaker, he was baptized at age 30. He was arrested int he great persecution of 1839, gave in to the torture and was released. Later he returned and asked to retract his renunciation of faith. He was beaten to death. And the 17-year-old Agatha Yi was arrested along with her parents, whom she was falsely told had apostatized. "Whether or not my parents betrayed is their affair. As for me, I cannot betray the Lord of Heaven, whom I have always served." She and her parents were then executed.

Andrew Kim was ordained in 1843, a native Korean who gave his life as an act of God's providence. He was one of only 12 priests for 23,000 believers. And he never took a day off!

Though 10,000 Korean Christians were brutalized and martyred (tortured by fitting with long boards around their necks, like portable stocks; twisted with ropes until their joints popped out of their sockets; and/or brutally whipped), they could not be discouraged. French missionaries bravely kept coming, though it was like accepting certain death. But as the years went on, the horrid prejudice against Christians began to fall by the wayside; anti-Christian laws were left unenforced; foreign condemnation and pressure helped; and by 1886 persecution began to be a thing of the past. Now in South Korea there are over 1 1/2 million Catholics (and probably at least 100,000 in North Korea). The heroism of these "people of the morning calm" is a beacon to good people everywhere. St. Andrew and companions, pray for us.