Saint andrew kim taegon biography for kids

Religious freedom did not come to Korea until ; until then, Christians could be sentenced to death for practicing their faith. Andrew Kim Taegon —46 was the first native Korean to be ordained to the priesthood. Along with ministering to the Catholics in Korea, Andrew was assigned the responsibility to arrange for missionaries to enter the country without being discovered.

Unfortunately, he was caught by the authorities and arrested. Rather than renounce his faith, Andrew faced torture, and was later beheaded. InKorea saw its first consecrated missionary members of the Foreign Missions Society arrive. They found out that the people there were already practicing Catholicism. After baptism at age 15, Kim studied at a seminary in the Portuguese colony of Macau.

During his seminary years, he also spent time in Lolomboy, Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines, where his statue was erected in the village.

Saint andrew kim taegon biography for kids

After ordination, he returned to Korea to preach and evangelize. The years,and are forever signed with the holy blood of your martyrs and engraved in your hearts. The death of these many martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians of the Church of Silence in the north of this tragically divided land.

In the small community of Koreans who had been converted through what they read in the books sent one of their own to Beijing to receive baptism. In the next half century, the rapidly growing Christian community of Korea was sustained in the Sacraments by only two priests from Chinauntilwhen, after years of pleading, a group of French missionary priests were sent to Korea.

Paul are used here with permission from Catholic. Search Saints. Joseph of Cupertino Sts. Anne and Joachim St. Robert Bellarmine Sts. John Gabriel Perboyre St. Nicholas of Tolentino St. Cloud St. Eleutherius St.