1846: Andrew Kim Taegon, the first Korean priest

ExecutedToday.com ^ | September 16, 2014 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

The first native Korean Catholic priest, Andrew Kim Taegon, was martyred for his faith on this date in 1846.

Catholicism had begun making inroads in Korea from the late 18th century, a development most unwelcome for the Confucian Joseon dynasty. Catholic adherents graduated over the decades of the 19th century to heavier and heavier degrees of persecution. By 1866, the peak of anti-Catholic sentiment, it’s thought that Korea’s Catholic community numbered about 20,000 living souls — and had lost about 10,000 others to martyrdom.

Andrew’s father was one of these 10,000. The son, and the principal figure of this post, was baptized in his childhood. He trained for Holy Orders at overseas seminaries, in China and the Philippines (according to Wikipedia, he has a statue in the Philippines village where he once hung his hat), finally stealing illicitly into Korea to evangelize underground. Such missions were of ancient vintage for the Church; they have also proven a font of martyrs...

[Pontiac]

Tortured and beheaded at 25.

[BeauBo]

IIRC, An unusual, if not unique aspect of Christianity in Korea, is that they self-evangelized.

Koreans heard of Christianity, and sent Koreans to be educated and become priests, rather than having foreign priests and missionaries come first.

[hanamizu]

Japanese did the same thing to their Christians on Kyushu.