From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
September 21st - Bl. Laurence Imbert & Companions
=E2=80 1839
KOREA is one of the few countries in the world to which Christianity
was first introduced otherwise than by Christian missionaries. During
the 18th century some Chinese Christian books were brought into the
country, and a man who had read them joined the embassy from Seoul to
Peking in 1784, sought out Mgr. de Gouvea there, and from him received
baptism. He returned to his own country and when, ten years later, a
Chinese priest came to Korea he found 4000 Christians awaiting him. He
was their only pastor for 7 years, and after he was killed in 1801
they were without a priest for 30 years. A letter is extant written by
the Koreans to Pope Pius VII, imploring him to send them priests at
once; their little flock had already given martyrs to the Church. In
1831 the vicariate apostolic of Korea was created, but the first vicar
never reached there. His successor, Mgr. Laurence Joseph Mary Imbert,
Titular Bishop of Capsa and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions,
who had been in China for 12 years, entered the country in disguise at
the end of 1837, having been preceded by BL. PETER PHILIBERT MAUBANT
and BL. JAMES HONOR=C3=89 CHASTAN, priests of the same missionary society.
Christianity was now definitely proscribed in Korea, and for two years
the missionaries went about their work with complete secrecy.
Of its circumstances and difficulties Mgr. Imbert wrote: =E2=80=9CI am overwhelmed with fatigue and in great danger. I get up at half-past
two every morning. At three I call the people of the house to prayers,
and at half-past I begin the duties of my ministry by baptizing, if
there are any converts, or by giving confirmation. Then come Mass,
communion, and thanksgiving. The 15 to 20 people who have received the sacraments can thus get away before daybreak. During the day about as
many come in, one by one, for confession, and do not go until the next
morning after communion. I stay two days in each house, where I get
the Christians together, and before it is light I go on to another. I
suffer a great deal from hunger: for it is no easy matter in this cold
and wet climate to get up at half-past two and then wait until noon
for a meal which is poor, insufficient, and lacking in nourishment.
After dinner I rest a little until I have to take my senior scholars
in theology, and finally I hear confessions again until nightfall. At
9 o'clock I go to bed--on a mat on the floor with a Tartary-wool
blanket; there are no bedsteads or mattresses in Korea. In spite of my
weak body and poor health I have always led a hard and very busy life:
but here I think I have reached the positive limit of work. You will
well understand that, leading a life like this, we scarcely fear the sword-stroke that may at any time end it.=E2=80=9D
By these heroic means the Christians in Korea were increased by a
half, roughly from 6000 to 9000, in less than two years. What was
going on soon became known, and a decree for their extermination was
published. An example of the horrors that took place is provided by
BL. AGATHA KIM, one of the 76 Koreans beatified with the 3 priests.
She was asked if it were true that she practised the Christian
religion. =E2=80=9CI know Jesus and Mary=E2=80=9D, she replied, =E2=80=9Cbu=
t I know nothing
else.=E2=80=9D--=E2=80=9CIf you are tortured you will give up this Jesus an=
d Mary.=E2=80=9D--
=E2=80=9CIf I have to die I will not.=E2=80=9D She was long and cruelly tor= mented and
at last sentenced to death. A tall cross of wood was fixed to a cart
and to this cross Agatha was hung by her arms and hair. The cart was
driven off and at the top of a steep and very rough slope the oxen
were pricked up and the cart sent lurching and jolting down, the woman
swinging at every movement with all her weight on her hair and wrists.
At the place of execution she was stripped naked, her head forced down
on to a block, and there cut off.
BL. JOHN RI wrote from prison =E2=80=9CTwo or three months passed before th=
e
judge sent for me, and I became sad and anxious. The sins of my whole
life, when I had so often offended God from sheer wickedness, seemed
to weigh me down like a mountain, and I wondered to myself, =E2=80=98What w= ill
be the end of all this?' But I never lost hope. On the 10th day of =
the
12th moon I was brought before the judge and he ordered me to be
bastinadoed. How could I have borne it by my own strength alone? But
the strength of God and the prayers of Mary and the saints and all our
martyrs upheld me, so that I believe I scarcely suffered at all. I
cannot repay such a mercy, and to offer my life is only just.=E2=80=9D
To avert a general massacre and its attendant danger of apostasy, Mgr.
Imbert allowed himself to be taken and recommended M. Maubant and M.
Chastan to do the same. This they did, after writing letters to Rome
explaining their action and giving an account of their charge. They
were all 3 bastinadoed, then carried on chairs to the banks of the
river which flows around Seoul, tied back to back to a post, and there beheaded. This was on September 21, 1839, but their feast is kept by
the Paris Foreign Missions on the 26th. In the year 1904 the relics of eighty-one martyrs of Korea were translated to the episcopal church of
the vicar apostolic at Seoul, and in 1925 Bl. Laurence and his
companions were beatified. The first Korean priest martyr was BL.
ANDREW KIM in 1846.They were canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1984.
In C. Dallet, L'histoire de l'Eglise de Cor=C3=A9e (1874), =
especially vol.
ii, pp. 118-185, the life and sufferings of these martyrs are
recounted in detail. See also A. Launay, Les Missionnaires fran=C3=A7ais en Cor=C3=A9e (1895), and Martyrs fran=C3=A7ais et cor=C3=A9ens (1925); and E.=
Baumann
in The Golden Legend Overseas (1931).
Saint Quote:
On behalf of Christ crucified I tell you: refuse to believe the
counsels of the devil, who would hinder your holy and good resolution.
Be manly in my sight, and not timorous. Answer God, who calls you to
hold and possess the seat of the glorious Shepherd St. Peter, whose
vicar you have been. And raise the standard of the holy Cross.
--Saint Catherine of Siena to Pope Gregory XI
Bible Quote
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his
sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and
flieth: and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep: (John
10:11-12) DRB
<><><><>
God sends his heaviest crosses
To those he calls his own,
And the bitterest drops of the chalice
Are reserved for his friends alone.
But the blood-red drops are precious,
And the crosses are all gain,
For joy is bought with sacrifice,
And the price of love is pain.
(Author unknown)
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