Korea: Archdiocese of Seoul commemorates Month of Martyrs

St Andrew Kim Tae-gon - Image Youtube

Source: Archdiocese of Seoul

The Archdiocese of Seoul has recently held a series of events to mark the Memorial of St Andrew Kim Tae-gon, Korea's first Catholic priest, Venerable Fr Thomas Choe Yang-eop and Companions.

Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, Archbishop of Seoul, and Bishops of the Archdiocese of Seoul concelebrated Mass for the Martyrs' Month on September 1st at Myeongdong Cathedral. Only a few faithful was allowed to attend this Mass under the toughest Covid social distancing rules.

The Korean Church devotes every September as Martyrs' Month since the history of great martyrdom brought about today's Korean Church with almost six million faithful, 12,000 religious, and 6,000 priests. During the Martyrs' Month Korean Catholics remember and pray for not only 103 saints canonized in 1984 by St Pope John Paull II, 124 blessed beatified in 2014 by Pope Francis, but also numerous unknown martyrs without any records.

To commemorate the jubilee of the 200th anniversary of the birth of St Andrew Kim St Andrew Kim Tae-gon, who was awarded UNESCO patronage in 2019, the Research Foundation of Korean Church History published the English translation of The Letters of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-gon for the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1821.

The book is a collection of letters written by the Saint which vividly shows the spirit and breath of a man who bravely testified to his faith, lived like a flame as a priest and missionary, and was called by God.

The Research Foundation of Korean Church History is the first research institute in the Catholic Church of Korea, established on 17 August 1964. Its goal is to research and educate the history of the Korean Catholic Church and to archive and organize historicaland sources. In May 1975, the late Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, Archbishop of Seoul & Apostolic Administrator of Pyongyang, decided to foster the institute as an independent pastoral organization directly under the Archdiocese of Seoul. The Research is currently publishing Research Journal of Korean Church History- which is a registered academic journal, Korean Church History Translations (as research material), Letters of Missionaries, and sourcebooks of artifacts; it is also the host of three to four academic conferences and one or two symposiums a year. The Foundation continues to provide education programs such as the open university and is also in active collaboration with organisations in and out of Korea for the research and survey of relevant historical records, as well as organising exhibitions.

The institute hopes to realise and recall the spiritual renewal of all clergy, religious and faithful of the Archdiocese of Seoul and the Korean Church through the publication. And it would like to introduce the history of Faith among the early Korean Christians, who uniquely accepted Catholicism spontaneously without the intervention of foreign missionaries; thereby shedding a ray of hope onto the hearts of many whose spirits have been dimmed by the ongoing COVD-19 pandemic.

The Martyrs Exaltation Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul hosted 'Accompany with love in September' along with various exhibitions, performances, walking pilgrimages, and masses to celebrate the Martyrs' Month. During this month, the faithful of Seoul Archdiocese visited martyrs' shrines and historic sites which is called 'Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route', declared as the first Asian International Pilgrimage Site by Vatican on September 14th 2018.

The department has run the yearly 'Korean-Asian Pilgrimage Network' project since 2019, in order to promote organised pilgrimages in Asia and Korea, and the Asian Catholic Youth for Pilgrimage in Seoul. Based on the friendship and solidarity among Asian countries sharing the history of persecutions and martyrdoms, the Archdiocese tries to contribute to the evangelisation of Asia through connecting the pilgrimage sites, the 'Open doors to new evangelization'.