Seoul, South Korea, Jun 20, 2007 / 09:18 am
Priests of the Diocese of Wonju, South Korea, recommitted to their vocations and pledged to sanctify their lives daily by following the model of Fr. Thomas Choe Yang-eop, Korea's second native priest.
Fr. Choe is known as the "Martyr of Sweat" for walking an average of 2,800 kilometers a year to visit Catholics in remote villages, before his death in 1861 from exhaustion and typhoid. A cause is underway for his canonization.
Fr. Choe was born in 1821, the first son of St. Francis Choe Kyong-hwan. He was ordained a priest in 1849, five years after St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon was ordained the first Korean priest.
About 60 priests gathered at the diocesan-run Baeron Shrine in Jecheon, 120 kilometers southeast of Seoul, where Fr. Choe is buried, to celebrate World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests, reported UCA News.