Andrew kim taegon biography examples
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Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions
Image: Saint Andrew Kim Taegon and Companions | CNS Photo
Saints of the Day for September 20
Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (August 21, 1821 – September 16, 1846); Saint Paul Chong Hasang and Companions (d. between 1839 – 1867)
Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions’ Stories
The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home igen, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the denne River near Seoul, the capital.
Andrew’s father Ignatius Kim, was martyre
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On August 17, 1845, Andrew Kim Taegŏn was the first native-born Korean to be ordained a priest. Back in Korea, Andrew began the dangerous work of ministering to the brave community. He spent much of his energy making it possible for other priests and catechists to enter Korea as well.
In June of the next year, Andrew was arrested and spent the next three months in prison. The prison was very dirty and overcrowded, and the prisoners were mistreated. While in prison, Andrew wrote letters to his fellow Christians encouraging them to remain true to the faith in spite of the trials and danger facing them. On September 16, 1846, he was executed near Seoul, Korea. He was 26 years old.
In his homily on March 23, 2001 at the Inauguration of the Pontifical Korean college in Rome, Pope John Paul II recalled what Andrew was said to have said to his fellow prisoners while he was imprisoned himself: "Do not let misfortunes frighten you", he begged them; "do not lose heart and do not
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Sts. Andrew Kim Taego˘n, Paul Chông Hasang and Companions, Korean Martyrs
An unlikely beginning
When, around the year 1777, a small group of Korean scholars began to study Christian writings brought into their country from China, something happened that is difficult to explain as anything other than a work of God. A spark was ignited. Pondering the words, some were “cut to the heart,” like the crowds listening to the apostles in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 2:37). In 1784, one of them traveled to China, found a priest, and asked for baptism. When he returned to his country, the spark became a fire. individ to person, friend to friend, this new faith spread.
A Chinese priest was finally able to visit Korea in 1794. There, he found 4,000 believers! In fifty years, this community, poor in the sacraments but rich in faith, grew to 10,000.
Korean authorities were not pleased by this “foreign” tro. The authorities’ cruelty was great, but the faith of these new believers was greater, for in