Almighty God,
you have created all nations and you are their salvation:
in the land of Korea your call to faith formed a people of adoption
whose growth you nurtured by the blood of Mark, Alexius and their companions. Through their martyrdom grant us strength
that we too may remain faithful to your commandments even until death;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.
The Korean church is unique in that in the 18th and 19th centuries the Christian faith was spread almost exclusively by lay people working as catechists. Many thousands of these faithful believers were martyred in three great bursts of persecution by the state in 1839, 1845 and 1866/7. In that last campaign, Mark Chong and Alexius Ou, both lay catechists, were tortured and beheaded. Alexius was only 22 when he met his death for Christ. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.