St. Andrew Kim Taegon

Andrew Kim Taegon was the first native Korean ordained to the priesthood. His parents were converts and his father Ignatius Kim was killed for his faith in 1839. Andrew was baptized at age 15 and then traveled over a thousand miles to the study at the seminary in Macao, China. Six years later he returned to Korea and later that year traveled to Shanghai, China for his ordination. Once back in Korea, he arranged for missionaries avoid the authorities by enter the country through a water route, but he was arrested and tortured for the faith. He was beheaded in 1846 near Seoul and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1984, along with 99 other Koreans and three French missionaries who were martyred between 1839 and 1867; 92 of these martyrs were lay people. The feast of St. Andrew Kim Taegon and his fellow Korean martyrs is September 20.