The Archdiocese of Seoul announced that it has received authorization from the Vatican, or “nihil obstat,” to initiate the beatification cause of the priest who pioneered monastic life in Korea.
According to the Vatican news agency Fides, Father Leo Bang Yu-ryong (1900–1986) will be recognized as a servant of God. With this permission, the archdiocese will be able to begin the diocesan phase of the process.
Auxiliary Bishop Job Koo Yoo-bi of Seoul, president of the diocesan commission for beatification and canonization, said that in this first phase, information and testimonies will be gathered about Bang Yu-ryong’s heroic virtues and reputation for holiness.
Bang Yu-ryong was born on March 6, 1900. He grew up in a time marked by the persecution of Christians. In 1917, he entered the Yongsan Minor Seminary, where he was deeply convinced that Indigenous or local monastic life was necessary for the Catholic Church in the country, which had not yet been divided into North and South Korea.
He was ordained a priest in 1930. In Hwanghae Province, where he was parish priest from 1933, he renewed pastoral ministry by eliminating the custom of separating boys from girls in church, installed the first organ, created a youth choir, encouraged youth activities, and accompanied aspiring monks.
On April 21, 1946, the first Easter Sunday after Korean independence from Japanese imperial rule and 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Andrew Kim, he and two religious sisters founded the first Korean women’s congregation, the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs.
The priest wished to perpetuate the spirit of the martyrs, patron saints of the new congregation, whom he called “ancestors in the faith.” He gave the order the charism of “spreading the Gospel in a spirit of fraternal love and martyrdom, for the glory of God and the sanctification of its members.”
On Dec. 12, 1951, he received official approval of the congregation from the Holy See. On Oct. 30, 1953, he also founded the male congregation of the Blessed Korean Martyrs, the first native male religious order in Korea.
In 1957, he established the third order of consecrated laymen with the same charism, and in 1962, he authorized the founding of the Society of the Sisters of the Palm of the Korean Martyrs for married and widowed women.
On May 6, 1957, Bang Yu-ryong made his perpetual vows in the congregation he founded and dedicated his entire life to consolidating his spiritual family. He died on Jan. 24, 1986.
In addition to the cause of Bang Yu-ryong, the Archdiocese of Seoul is also pursuing the beatification of Bishop Barthelemy Bruguière (1792–1835), the first apostolic vicar of Korea and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
The other case is that of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan (1922–2009), archbishop of Seoul from 1968 to 1998 and the first Korean cardinal.
