I used to joke that I’d be content to be a “companion” on the Church calendar of saints. Every so often, we have a feast that honors a saint and his “companions.” They are usually groups of missionaries or martyrs who served and died together. In my joke, I would concede that someday I did not need my own personal feast day–I would be happy to be mentioned alongside someone more famous.
One of these feasts is the feast of St. Andrew Kim and Companions, celebrated universally on September 20. Andrew Kim was the first native Korean to be ordained a priest. The Church in Korea was begun and spread by a group of laity, and persecution began almost immediately. Andrew Kim escaped to China to study for the priesthood, knowing fully that it was likely a death sentence (his great-grandfather, great-uncle, father, and aunt were all martyrs.) After ordination in China, he returned home and immediately got to work bringing his people the sacraments. But he was soon arrested, brutally tortured, and beheaded. He was a priest on this earth for only 13 months.
Andrew was canonized by John Paul II with 102 other Korean martyrs, including St. Paul Chong Ha-sang, a lay Catholic leader in Korea who was instrumental in getting foreign priests to minister to Korea’s persecuted Catholic community.
While Andrew and Paul are perhaps names most familiar, the other 101 martyrs are not completely unknown. They include Saint Ignatius Kim Jejun, Andrew’s father; Saint Peter Yu Taecheol, a 13-year old and the youngest of the martyrs; Saint Augustine Yu Chin-gil, his father; St. Anna Pak Agi whose husband and children urged her to deny Christ to save her life; St. Magdalena Ho Kyeim, mother of two other martyrs, St. Barbara Yi Chŏng-Hŭi and St. Magdalena Yi Yong-Hui. We know their names and many of their stories. These martyrs, mostly lay people, were old and young, rich and poor, academic and illiterate. Some had converted through study, others through a witness of love.
Nearly 10,000 Koreans were brutally martyred for the Faith before Christianity was allowed in Korea in 1884. Under constant threat of death, these men and women preached the Gospel, baptized their friends and family members, and strove to live lives of holiness, often without the benefit of the sacraments. Once they discovered the truth of Jesus Christ, they risked everything for him.
We may call them companions of Andrew Kim, but they truly are companions of Our Lord on the Cross.
“We have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name only and not in fact?” Andrew Kim Taegon
These men and women show us what it looks like to be Christian in fact.
Throughout the city of Seoul, pilgrims can follow a 27 mile trail, officially recognized by the Vatican, which links the primary sites where these holy men and women bore ultimate witness to their faith. Our World Youth day pilgrimages will visit many of these shrines so that we can pray at the ground that became sacred with the blood of these precious martyrs. May they encourage us in our own pilgrimages of life to be courageous witnesses of the love of Christ!
