The consecration ceremony for the icon of St. Andrew Kim Dae-geon is being held near the installation site on the outer wall of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on the 16th (local time). /yunhap news
The statue of Father Andrew Kim Dae-geon (1821-1846), the first Korean Catholic priest, was officially unveiled to the public after a consecration ceremony at the Vatican in Rome on the 16th (local time). On this day, it was exactly 177 years since Father Kim Dae-geon was martyred. After about two years of production, the statue was installed in a 4.5m high large niche on the right exterior wall of St. Peter’s Basilica on the 5th and covered with cloth. there was.
About 400 Korean Catholic Church representatives attended the consecration ceremony. The delegation included the Korean Catholic Bishops’ Conference (Bishops’ Conference), an official pilgrimage group, local Korean priests, monks, laypeople, the production crew and cast of the movie ‘Birth’ depicting the life of Father Kim Dae-gun, and representatives of the Korean government. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, chief priest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said at the consecration ceremony, “Starting with Father Kim Dae-geon, there will now be icons representing each nation and nation. Today’s event is an expression of hope that the Eastern and Western churches will move forward together.” He said. Nearby, there are also the widely known icons of Saints Francis and Dominic who founded the monastery named after them. This is the first time that a statue of an East Asian saint has been erected in the Vatican in Rome, the center of the Catholic world, and the first time that a statue of a saint other than the founder of a religious order has been installed on the wall of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The statue of Father Kim Dae-geon is a full-length statue with a height of 3.7 m and a width of approximately 1.8 m. Instead of the soutane, the traditional attire of a Catholic priest, he wore traditional Korean clothing, including a hat and dopo, and wore a stola around his neck, which was used during mass, thereby revealing his identity as a Korean priest. On the pedestal of the statue, the words ‘St. The consecration ceremony ended with a fun samulnori performance.
Pope Francis did not attend the consecration ceremony, but met the delegation at the Clemens Hall of the Apostolic Palace this morning and expressed his congratulations. The Pope said, “Saint Kim Dae-geon witnessed the horrors of the Opium War when he was a theological student, and pursued peace through dialogue even in the midst of a terrible conflict. His footsteps are proof that the future is built not by violent power, but by gentleness, and that the Korean Peninsula “It is a prophecy for the whole world.” He then asked, “I ask you all to become apostles of peace like Father Kim Dae-gun.” Kang Seung-gyu, Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Society, who attended as a government special envoy, delivered a personal letter from President Yoon Seok-yeol to the Pope.
The production and installation of the icon of Father Kim Dae-gun was accomplished through the efforts of Cardinal Yoo Heung-sik, Minister of the Vatican for the Clergy, and the Bishops’ Conference. In August 2021, the 200th anniversary of Father Kim Dae-geon’s birth, Cardinal Yoo directly asked Pope Francis to “allow us to install a statue of Father Kim Dae-geon in an empty niche on the outer wall of St. Peter’s Basilica.” The Bishops’ Conference then decided to support this, and last year, 16 dioceses participated and raised money to produce the icon.
Han Jin-seop (67), a mid-career sculptor, was in charge of creating the statue. The Vatican initially proposed selecting a sculptor through public competition in Italy, but Cardinal Yoo persuaded them, saying, “We cannot entrust the statue of a Korean saint to a sculptor from another country (other than Korea),” and went ahead with it. Cardinal Yoo said on this day, “Father Kim Dae-geon is no longer just ‘Korea’s Kim Dae-geon,’ but has become ‘the whole world’s Kim Dae-geon.’” He added, “Young people around the world will be able to share the life of Father Kim Dae-geon, which was always full of hope and courage, even though it was a short life of 25 years.” “I pray that we will follow suit,” he said.
Father Kim Dae-geon was born into a Catholic family in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province in 1821, studied theology in Macau and the Philippines, and was ordained a priest at the age of 24. He continued his pastoral activities despite the persecution of the Catholic Church and was martyred in 1846 at the Saenamteo Shrine in Ichon-dong, Yongsan, Seoul. In 1857, 11 years after his martyrdom, he was made a Venerable by Pope Pius IX, and in 1925, he was made a Blessed by Pope Pius He was canonized (declared a saint) in 1984 during the reign of Pope Paul II.
2023-09-17 11:24:00
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