Korean layman who kept the faith in the persecution of 1866 and was martyred on March 30, 1866.
Life
Joseph Chang Chu-gi was born in 1803. After embracing the faith he served as a catechist leader and lived at Baeron in Jecheon, Chungcheong Province.
He offered his own house to be used as a seminary for training priests and cared devotedly for the missionaries and seminarians. In a time of persecution, his home was the precious ground where the Korean Church tried to raise its own priests.
When the priests at the Baeron seminary were arrested in March 1866, he went into hiding for a while, but fearing that other Catholics would suffer on his account, he gave himself up. Taken to Seoul, he kept the faith under torture and was martyred at Galmaemot in Boryeong on March 30, 1866, together with Bishop Daveluy, Fathers Huin and Aumaître, and Luke Hwang Sok-tu.
Spirituality
Joseph Chang Chu-gi's spirituality is service for the Church of the future. He gave his home as ground in which priests could grow, and that service reaches beyond the persecution to the Church of today. His home was a place where hope grew even in persecution.
Reflection
Joseph Chang Chu-gi gave his home for the training of priests. Why not pray today for vocations, and for the seminarians and priests from our own parish, remembering them by name?