Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert Bishop Bum Sehyeong | |
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.jpg) Second Roman Catholic Bishop of Korea | |
| French missionary, bishop and martyr | |
| Born | (1796-03-23)23 March 1796 Marignane, Bouches-du-Rhône, France |
| Died | 21 September 1839(1839-09-21) (aged 43) Saenamteo, Kingdom ofJoseon |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church (Korea and theParis Foreign Missions Society) |
| Beatified | 5 July 1925,Vatican City, byPope Pius XI |
| Canonized | 6 May 1984,Seoul,South Korea, byPope John Paul II |
| Majorshrine | Saenamteo Memorial Church,Seoul, South Korea |
| Feast | 21 September 20 September (along with Korean Martyrs) |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 범세형 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 范世亨 |
| RR | Beom Sehyeong |
| MR | Pŏm Sehyŏng |
Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert (Born: 23 March 1796 – Died: 21 September 1839), affectionately known in Korea asBishop Laurentius Bum Sehyeong (Korean: 범세형 라우렌시오) was aRoman CatholicFrenchbishop inAsia. He was most notable for his Christian missionary work among the Koreans, he was appointed byPope Gregory XVI in August 1836 when first BishopBarthélemy Bruguière died inManchuria.
Eventually, he was executed in the Kingdom ofJoseon for hisCatholic faith; it is estimated that 8,000 to 10,000 were killed for their faith in 19th-century Korea—theKorean Martyrs. 103 of them, including Imbert, werecanonized by theCatholic Church as saints in 1984. His feast day is 21 September,[1] and he is also venerated with the rest of the 103Korean martyrs on 20 September.
Imbert was born atMarignane, to parents who were residents of thehamlet of Callas, in thecommune ofCabriès in theDepartment ofBouches-du-Rhône. When he became of age, he was sent toAix to pursue his studies. According to reports, he paid his expenses by making and sellingrosaries. He then enrolled at theseminary of theParis Foreign Missions Society on 8 October 1818.[2]
On 5 March 1819, Imbert wasincardinated in theArchdiocese of Paris, andordained on 18 December of that same year, having received anindult from theHoly See due to his not having reached the legal age. He then set sail from France on 20 March 1820, bound formissionary service in China.
Imbert's first stop was inPenang,Malaya, where he was asked to replace a teacher at theCollege General (Major Seminary), who had taken ill. He taught there from April 1821 to January 1822
In 1821,Esprit-Marie-Joseph Florens, theVicar Apostolic of Siam, requested for him to call at Singapore. The bishop had been contemplating opening amissionary station in Singapore. He was not very certain, though, whether there was any urgency or he was aware of the circumstances prevailing in the island. Therefore, the young missionary was to check on the situation. He reached Singapore on 11 December 1821 and spent about a week there. Imbert might have been the first priest to celebrateMass on the island.
In February 1822, Imbert sailed forMacau, but unable to go directly there, he spent the next two years inTonkin,French Indochina. Only then was he able to enter China, where he spent twelve years inSichuan and founded a seminary inMoupin.
On 26 April 1836, Imbert was appointedVicar Apostolic of Korea andTitular Bishop ofCapsa. He wasconsecrated on 14 May 1837 byGiacomo Luigi Fontana M.E.P., theVicar Apostolic of Szechwan.[3] He then crossed secretly from Manchuria to Korea that same year. During this time, Korea was going through a period ofChristian persecution.
On 10 August 1839, Imbert, who was secretly going about his missionary work, was betrayed. Realizing that it was only a matter of time before he was arrested and killed, he celebrated Mass and surrendered himself to those who lay in waiting for him. He was taken toSeoul, where he was tortured to reveal the whereabouts of foreign missionaries. Mistakenly believing that hisconverts would be spared if all foreign missionaries came out from hiding and gave themselves up, he wrote a note to his fellow missionaries,Pierre-Philibert Maubant and Jacques-Honoré Chastan, asking them to surrender to the Korean authorities as well, which they did.
All three of them were imprisoned together. They were taken before aninterrogator and questioned for three days to reveal the names and whereabouts of their converts. As torture failed to break them down, they were sent to another prison andbeheaded on 21 September 1839 at Saenamteo, Korea. Their bodies remained exposed for several days but were finallyburied on Nogu Mountain.
The three were among the 79Korean Martyrsbeatified in 1925, and among the 103Korean Martyrscanonized byPope John Paul II in Seoul on 6 May 1984.
Thefeast day of Saint Laurent Imbert is celebrated on 20 September (formerly 10 June). Accordingly, a religious statue of Imbert Bum is also enshrined at a side chapel of theMyeongdong Cathedral, where pious women have vested the image in the traditionalHanbok costume of South Korea.
Ordinaries of the Archdiocese of Seoul | |
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| Apostolic vicariate | |
| Diocese | |
