Canonized: Pre-congregation by tradition confirmed by Pope Gregory I
Patronage: Bellfounders, breast cancer patients, bakers, nurses/wet nurses, jewelers, martyrs, rape victims, single laywomen, sufferers of sterility, Victims of torture, natural disasters, fire, earthquakes, eruptions of Mount Etna, and volcanic eruptions, Catania (Sicily), Gallipoli (Apulia), Molise, Malta, San Marino, Zamarramala (Segovia, Spain), Escatrón, (Zaragoza, Spain)
Saints Andrew Kim Taegon (August 21, 1821 – September 16, 1846), Paul Chong Hasang, and Companions (d. between 1839 – 1867) Stories
The first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital.
Andrew’s father Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839, and was beatified in 1925. Paul Chong Hasang, a lay apostle and married man, also died in 1839 at age 45.
Among the other martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot tools and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. Peter Ryou, a boy of 13, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a 41-year-old nobleman, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death.
Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for taking taxes to Beijing annually. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom came to Korea in 1883.
Besides Andrew and Paul, Pope John Paul II canonized 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867, when he visited Korea in 1984. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women and 45 men.
Reflection
We marvel at the fact that the Korean Church was strictly a lay Church for a dozen years after its birth. How did the people survive without the Eucharist? It is no belittling of this and other sacraments to realize that there must be a living faith before there can be a truly beneficial celebration of the Eucharist. The sacraments are signs of God’s initiative and response to faith already present. The sacraments increase grace and faith, but only if there is something ready to be increased.
Blessed John Francis Burté’s and Companions’ Stories (d. September 2, 1792 and January 21, 1794)
These priests were victims of the French Revolution. Though their martyrdom spans a period of several years, they stand together in the Church’s memory because they all gave their lives for the same principle. In 1791, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy required all priests to take an oath which amounted to a denial of the faith. Each of these men refused and was executed.
John Francis Burté became a Franciscan at 16 and after ordination taught theology to the young friars. Later he was guardian of the large Conventual friary in Paris until he was arrested and held in the convent of the Carmelites.
Appolinaris of Posat was born in 1739 in Switzerland. He joined the Capuchins and acquired a reputation as an excellent preacher, confessor, and instructor of clerics. Preparing for his assignment to the East as a missionary, he was in Paris studying Oriental languages when the French Revolution began. Refusing the oath, he was swiftly arrested and detained in the Carmelite convent.
Severin Girault, a member of the Third Order Regular, was a chaplain for a group of sisters in Paris. Imprisoned with the others, he was the first to die in the slaughter at the convent.
These three plus 182 others—including several bishops and many religious and diocesan priests—were massacred at the Carmelite house in Paris on September 2, 1792. They were beatified in 1926.
Born in 1737, John Baptist Triquerie became a Conventual Franciscan. He was the chaplain and confessor of Poor Clare monasteries in three cities before he was arrested for refusing to take the oath. He and 13 diocesan priests were martyred in Laval on January 21, 1794. He was beatified in 1955.
Reflection
“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” was the motto of the French Revolution. If individuals have “inalienable rights,” as the Declaration of Independence states, these must come not from the agreement of society—which can be very fragile—but directly from God. Do we believe that? Do we act on it?
Saint John Jones (c.1530 – 1598) and Saint John Wall (1620 – 1679)
These two friars were martyred in England in the 16th and 17th centuries for refusing to deny their faith.
John Jones was Welsh. He was ordained a diocesan priest and was twice imprisoned for administering the sacraments before leaving England in 1590. He joined the Franciscans at the age of 60 and returned to England three years later while Queen Elizabeth I was at the height of her power. John ministered to Catholics in the English countryside until his imprisonment in 1596. He was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. John was executed on July 12, 1598.
John Wall was born in England but was educated at the English College of Douai, Belgium. Ordained in Rome in 1648, he entered the Franciscans in Douai several years later. In 1656 he returned to work secretly in England.
In 1678, Titus Oates worked many English people into a frenzy over an alleged papal plot to murder the king and restore Catholicism in that country. In that year Catholics were legally excluded from Parliament, a law which was not repealed until 1829. John Wall was arrested and imprisoned in 1678, and was executed the following year.
John Jones and John Wall were canonized in 1970.
Reflection
Every martyr knows how to save his/her life and yet refuses to do so. A public repudiation of the faith would save any of them. But some things are more precious than life itself. These martyrs prove that their 20th-century countryman, C. S. Lewis, was correct in saying that courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, that is, at the point of highest reality.
Saint Augustine Zhao Rong’s and Companions’ Stories (d. 1648 – 1930)
Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China’s relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly.
The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Eighty-seven of them were born in China, and were children, parents, catechists, or laborers, ranging in age from nine years to 72. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests. The 33 foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Society of Jesus, Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesians), and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.
Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse of the Paris Foreign Mission Society to his martyrdom in Beijing. Not long after his baptism, Augustine was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.
Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized together in Rome on October 1, 2000.
Reflection
The People’s Republic of China and the Roman Catholic Church each have well over a billion members, but there are only about 12 million Catholics in China. The reasons for that are better explained by historical conflicts than by a wholesale rejection of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Chinese-born martyrs honored by today’s feast were regarded by their persecutors as dangerous because they were considered allies of enemy Catholic countries. The martyrs born outside China often tried to distance themselves from European political struggles relating to China, but their persecutors saw them as Westerners and therefore, by definition, anti-Chinese.
The Good News of Jesus Christ is intended to benefit all peoples; today’s martyrs knew that. May 21st-century Christians live in such a way that Chinese women and men will be attracted to hear that Good News and embrace it.
Christian missionaries have often gotten caught in the crossfire of wars against their own countries. When the governments of Britain, Germany, Russia, and France forced substantial territorial concessions from the Chinese in 1898, anti-foreign sentiment grew very strong among many Chinese people.
Gregory Grassi was born in Italy in 1823, ordained in 1856, and sent to China five years later. Gregory was later ordained bishop of North Shanxi. With 14 other European missionaries and 14 Chinese religious, he was martyred during the short but bloody Boxer Uprising of 1900.
Twenty-six of these martyrs were arrested on the orders of Yu Hsien, the governor of Shanxi province. They were hacked to death on July 9, 1900. Five of them were Friars Minor; seven were Franciscan Missionaries of Mary—the first martyrs of their congregation. Seven were Chinese seminarians and Secular Franciscans; four martyrs were Chinese laymen and Secular Franciscans. The other three Chinese laymen killed in Shanxi simply worked for the Franciscans and were rounded up with all the others. Three Italian Franciscans were martyred that same week in the province of Hunan. All these martyrs were beatified in 1946, and were among the 120 martyrs canonized in 2000.
Reflection
Martyrdom is the occupational hazard of missionaries. Throughout China during the Boxer Uprising, five bishops, 50 priests, two brothers, 15 sisters and 40,000 Chinese Christians were killed. The 146,575 Catholics served by the Franciscans in China in 1906 had grown to 303,760 by 1924, and were served by 282 Franciscans and 174 local priests. Great sacrifices often bring great results.
Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and Companions’ Story (1804 – 1860)
Not much is known of the early life of Emmanuel Ruiz, but details of his heroic death in defense of the faith have come down to us.
Born of humble parents in Santander, Spain, he became a Franciscan priest and served as a missionary in Damascus. This was at a time when anti-Christian riots shook Syria and thousands lost their lives in just a short time.
Among these were Emmanuel, superior of the Franciscan convent, seven other friars, and three laymen. When a menacing crowd came looking for the men, they refused to renounce their faith and become Muslims. The men were subjected to horrible tortures before their martyrdom.
Emmanuel, his brother Franciscans and the three Maronite laymen were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926.
Reflection
The Church in Syria has known persecution throughout its history. Yet it has produced saints whose blood was shed for the faith. Let us pray for the Church in Syria.
Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions’ Story (d. between November 15, 1885 – January 27, 1887)
One of 22 Ugandan martyrs, Charles Lwanga is the patron of youth and Catholic action in most of tropical Africa. He protected his fellow pages, aged 13 to 30, from the homosexual demands of the Bagandan ruler, Mwanga, and encouraged and instructed them in the Catholic faith during their imprisonment for refusing the ruler’s demands.
Charles first learned of Christ’s teachings from two retainers in the court of Chief Mawulugungu. While a catechumen, he entered the royal household as assistant to Joseph Mukaso, head of the court pages.
On the night of Mukaso’s martyrdom for encouraging the African youths to resist Mwanga, Charles requested and received baptism. Imprisoned with his friends, Charles’s courage and belief in God inspired them to remain chaste and faithful.
For his own unwillingness to submit to the immoral acts and his efforts to safeguard the faith of his friends, Charles was burned to death at Namugongo on June 3, 1886, by Mwanga’s order.
When Pope Paul VI canonized these 22 martyrs on October 18, 1964, he also made reference to the Anglican pages martyred for the same reason.
Reflection
Like Charles Lwanga, we are all teachers and witnesses to Christian living by the examples of our own lives. We are all called upon to spread the word of God, whether by word or deed. By remaining courageous and unshakable in our faith during times of great moral and physical temptation, we live as Christ lived.
Today we hear about Jesus choosing the 12 apostles. Now, if you look at their resumes, they are a bit thin. Even though Jesus is supposed to know everything, He chose Judas who betrayed Him. All of the apostles were cowards as was demonstrated in the Garden of Gethsemane. He didn’t pick too well, did He. One of my theology professors, Father Francis Conway who is now in Heaven, would often say, “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” And that’s true. Why would He pick the Jews to bring salvation to the world? On the world stage, they were not even a footnote. Did they have an empire for 2,000 years like the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans? Nope. So just who were the Jews? They were nothing. It’s true. Then why did He pick them? Because if they cooperated with His grace, they could become something.
Look at Moses . . . he killed a man. Yet Moses saw God face-to-face like one man talking to another. He also received the Ten Commandments and was chosen to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. But it’s not about what Moses was; instead, it was about what God could do with him through His grace. It was the same with the apostles and what they could become. Spoiler alert – you will hear next week that the apostles came back and said to the Lord, “Oh wow. We did all these things. We did what you told us to do, and it worked!” Well, yeah! Do what you are told, and you will receive what you have been promised. It’s not who we are . . . it’s who we can become if we cooperate with God’s grace. Look at Saul. He persecuted followers of our Lord. Go through Church history, and you will see that there are a lot of stories like Saul’s.
What matters is what we can become. It’s not the letters in front of or after your name. Becoming “Very Reverend” made my mother very happy. It’s just an honorary title in my position. It doesn’t mean I’m “very reverend.” I wish I were. And all the letters after my name just prove I can take tests and are not a measure of how much I learned. It doesn’t make me more wonderful or smarter than anyone else. It doesn’t make what I have done better than what anyone else has done. But God can use it . . . He can use the worst of someone’s past to transform the world. Think about this: 88 years ago, our Lord used two men. One was a drunken stockbroker and the other was a drunken physician. Do you know what God did with those two men? They formed Alcoholics Anonymous and all the Twelve Step programs. How many men, women, and children have they saved. The drunken stockbroker and physician were two of what the world would call “losers,” and look at what God did with them.
God chose all of us, not for what we are but for what we can become. Each of us, because of our vocation in the Body of Christ, can go where others cannot. You cannot go where I go, and I cannot go where you go to bring God’s message and to evangelize. God has chosen you and chosen me, depending on our place in the Body of Christ, to be His apostles, to be His disciples, and to be His evangelists. This is not a reward. “Oh, you are such a good person. You did very well in your studies. I’m so proud of you!” We are given this grace for the good of others and not for our own well-being. It’s not an “Atta Boy.” God has given us all our talents and abilities – or perhaps our lack of talents and abilities. Remember what God said to Saint Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Even in our suffering, we can teach people how to suffer and how to love. Chaplain students all want to fix people. “Oh, we are going to talk, and I’ll get them into social welfare counseling.” Oh really? You have a very blessed job, and you may not realize it, but you are called to attend to those suffering in Christ. Laying in that bed is to suffer in Christ. Granted, they may be a royal real pain in the caboose. Not all people – sick or healthy – are nice. I’ve been cursed out a lot. Granted, I may have deserved some of it . . . but I’ve been cursed out a lot! When you try to do something nice for somebody and they do not appreciate it, they let you know in a lot of different ways and in no uncertain terms. They are suffering in Christ, and your reaction – or hopefully your lack of reaction – is evangelistic.
God chose us to be His apostles in the new Body of Christ. The apostles are now long in Heaven. They were all cowards, but look at what happened to them . . . 10 of the 11 died a martyr’s death. Although Peter was a coward, he died a martyr’s death by being crucified upside down. Crucifixion is not a fun way to go, but upside down is even worse. Paul had his head chopped off by the Romans. By the way, that was considered an honor because it was an easier death. God chose all of us but not to try to recreate the wheel – “Oh, we have this new program, and it’s great!” Really? Let me see if I can find that in the Bible. Nope, not there. I wonder why it didn’t work. But they all need your money. Just do what Christ told you to do. The apostles were surprised that everything Christ told them to do worked. We may see that some of our actions produce fruit – probably not though. So do not be surprised by a temptation from satan. We do what we are told to do. Obedience to God’s commands is a work of love. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep my Commandments.” So, when we have done a work of love, let that work of love bear fruit even if it is later.
How will you apply this message to your life? ________________________________
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