Saint Andrew Kim Dae-gon was the first Korean Catholic priest and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 6, 1984.
Newsroom (23/08/2021 22:38, Gaudium Press) On Saturday, 21 August, the Prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy – Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik – presided at a Holy Mass at the Altar of the Chair of Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
The liturgical celebration took place on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-gon (August 21, 1821), the first Korean Catholic priest, martyred in 1846 and canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II on 6 May 1984.
Thirty priests, seventy religious, and lay faithful were present at this Mass celebrated in the Vatican Basilica. The Korean Ambassador to the Holy See was also present.
Saint Andrew Kim Dae-gon
St. Andrew was born in 1821 to a noble Christian family. The family home had become a true “domestic church” in which Christians and newcomers to the Faith gathered to receive the Sacrament of Baptism.
At the age of 15, he was sent to Macao by one of the first French missionaries to arrive in Korea, to prepare him for the priesthood. Some years later he returned as a deacon, to prepare for Bishop Ferréol’s reception; he organized a ship of Christian sailors to pick him up in Shanghai, where he was blessed to receive his priestly ordination. He entered Korea, where he evangelized in an atmosphere of Christian persecution, yet diminishing in no way the fruits of his apostolate.
Bishop Ferréol commissioned him to send letters to Europe through the Bishop of Peking. However, during his encounter with Chinese ships, he was discovered, arrested, subjected to interrogations, and transferred from prison to prison. Despite the tortures he suffered, he always professed his loyalty to God while rejecting attempts to turn him against the Church. (EPC)
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
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