Saints Of September 20: Martyrs Of Korea

Luke 21:12-19

The Lord said to his disciples, “Beware of men who will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”

Saint Andrew Kim Taegon

Priest & Martyr

Homily of Pope John Paul II from the 1984 Canonization of the 103 Korean Martyrs.

According to Wikipedia: “There are over 5.1 million Catholics in South Korea - over 10% the population. South Korea has the fourth largest number of saints (since 1984).”

And more are on the way: Korean martyrs of Communist era to be beatified And many more could be likely…

“An estimated 300,000 Christians died or disappeared during the Communist persecution. Father Sabas Lee Seong-geun, vice postulator of the cause, told the Spanish daily, “They all died in North Korean prisons during the terrible wave of anti-Catholic persecution perpetrated after the Communists came to power.”

There are 103 martyrs in this group from 1984 - priests, missionaries and lay people who died in the early days of the Church in Korea. Most were murdered during persecutions in 1839, 1846 and 1867. (Complete List)

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

This entry was posted on September 20, 2007 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Holidays, Liturgical Year, Persecution, Saints and Sainthood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Saints Of September 20: Martyrs Of Korea”

  1. Zan Says:
    September 23, 2007 at 10:27 pm

    Hey this is pretty cool, I never knew there were so many korean martyrs

  2. A Simple Sinner Says:
    September 24, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    Sadly, most in the West don’t.

    Personally, I believe that with time and the eventual (we hope) peaceful collapse of the North, records will be uncovered about the fate of over a quarter of a million Catholics who perished from persecution.

    When that day happens, a good deal of room will need to be found on the calendar.

Leave a Reply