San Andrés Kim, Pablo Chong y compañeros mártires.

The Church celebrates the feast of Saint Andrew Kim, Paul Chong, and their companions, who were canonized as martyrs. Andrew Kim was the first Korean priest, and his canonization marked the first time in 700 years that a canonization ceremony was held outside of Rome.

Born in 1821, Kim grew up during a period of religious repression in Korea that resulted in the deaths of his great-grandfather and his father. After being selected as a seminarian in 1836, he was ordained a deacon in China in 1844 and a priest in Shanghai. Kim returned to Korea to perform pastoral work but served as a priest for only about one year before his arrest in June 1846. He was imprisoned for three months and was executed by decapitation on September 16, 1846, at the age of 26. Among his belongings was a letter to his faithful encouraging them to remain firm like soldiers in a battlefield. He was canonized alongside 102 companions.