Decrepit Old Men

The following is a incident retold by Fr. Roman Theisen in his booklet "People I Love".

As the three elderly men walked away, one with a slight limp the young Sister who was with me asked: "Who are those decrepit old men?" She had seen me invite them for coffee and walk with them to the gate. "Those are living martyrs of the Korean Church." I told her.

On June 25, 1950, the communist army of the North invaded South Korea, and sent millions of refugees pouring from the North into South Korea. Women and children were stopped at the bridges and train stations; young men of military age escaped on boats and trains to the South, remaining behind they would be conscripted in the North Korean Army, coming to the South they were conscripted into the South Korean Army.

When the fighting stopped and the Bamboo Curtain stabilized at the 38th parallel in 1953, dividing North and South Korea, these men were caught in the South and their wives and children sealed off in the North. As they were released from the Army the Catholic men, faced a cruel predicament. In Korea these men would find it very difficult to survive without their wives. Loyal Catholics, presuming their wives survived in the North could not remarry.

One of the priests invited such men to join him in a religious Brotherhood. As Religious Brothers they remained faithful to their wives in the North and at the same time supported themselves as carpenters, farmers, or by whatever occupation they had before the War. They were called the Brothers of the Korean Martyrs. Over thirty men joined him. When they petitioned for approval as a religious congregation Rome refused saying they must eventually return to their wives in the North.

When I started a parish in Kan Sek Dong the Brothers lent us their monastery chapel for Sunday Mass until we built our church. I was appointed to be their Confessor. I got to know these men. Since I was assigned elsewhere these Brothers would come several times a year for confession and spiritual direction. Several have died. Four of them left the Brotherhood and married, after I investigated the circumstances of their wives in North Korea and concluded that they must be presumed dead. Eight of the Brothers still visit me. Tired old men now largely forgotten by the Korean Church, somewhat looked down upon by the younger recruits to their Brotherhood, they continue to say their morning and night prayers together and work long hours on their farm. It has been an honor to know them.