Today, September 20, is the memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, Saint Paul Chong Hasang, and Companion-Martyrs of Korea.
During the terrible persecutions that occurred in the 19th century (in 1839, 1866, and 1867), 103 members of the Christian community of Korea became martyrs. Outstanding among these witnesses to the faith were the first Korean priest and pastor, Andrew Kim Taegon, and the lay apostle, Paul Chong Hasang.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon stayed in a Dominican convent located in Lolomboy, Bulacan from 1837 to 1841 during his years as a seminarian from Macau.
Included in this holy group of martyrs were a few bishops and priests, but mostly lay people, men and women, married and unmarried, children, young people, and the elderly.
They never denied their Christian faith in the face of death. It is because of them that the rich beginnings of the Catholic Church of Korea emerged, made fertile by their blood as martyrs.
They were canonized in 1984 by Pope St. John Paul II in Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea.