Our Patron Saint

Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon (1821-1846) was born into the Gimhae Kim clan in Solmoe, a small village in Dangjin, Chungcheong Province. His great grandfather Kim Jin-ho Pius (martyrdom in 1814), great uncle Kim Han-hyeon (martyrdom in 1816), and father Kim Je-jun (martyrdom in 1839) were martyrs who testified to their faith through martyrdom for four generations. In 1836, at the age of 15, he went to Macau to study theology through the arrangement of Father Maubant, and returned to Korea in January 1845 after suffering to the point of death by crossing the Yalu River.

Upon arriving in Seoul, he was in extremely poor health, but he set out for Shanghai to recruit missionary priests. After surviving a near-death experience in a storm, he was ordained a priest on August 17, 1845, at Kimga Port, about 5 miles from Shanghai, by Bishop Ferréol. He celebrated his first Mass at the Mandang Minor Seminary there, becoming the first priest of the Korean Church. On the 31st of the same month, he departed Shanghai on a small wooden ship named the Raphael, accompanied by Bishop Go and Father Daveluy Ahn, and landed in the small Catholic village of Nabawi, Chungcheong Province, on October 12, 1845.

While Father Kim devoted himself to missionary work, he also tried to bring Father Mestre, who was waiting in Manchuria, into the country, but security in the Uiju area was extremely tight. Bishop Ko instructed him to find a sea route, and Father Kim went to the vicinity of Baekryeong Island and was arrested on the night of June 5, 1846, at Sunwi Island. Arrested, Father Kim was taken to Pocheong in Seoul. Amazed by his extensive knowledge and foreign language skills, high-ranking officials pressured him to renounce his faith. However, when he attempted to reform the officials, they condemned him to death on the charge of being a mastermind of private education. After serving as a priest for only one year and one month, on September 16, 1846, at the age of 26, he was beheaded and martyred at Saenamteo.

He was beatified by Pope Pius XI on July 5, 1925, and canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 6, 1984, during his visit to Korea to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Church in Korea.