Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

Pyongyang, the lost Jerusalem of the East

Fantasy (North Korea)

Antes de la división de la península, Pyongyang era llamada la «Jerusalén de Oriente» por la densidad de su vida cristiana. Está documentado que, hasta 1945, la ciudad fue uno de los grandes centros cristianos de Corea, con una presencia protestante muy fuerte y una comunidad católica creciente. Hay que ser honestos: el célebre sobrenombre se asocia sobre todo a la Pyongyang protestante, y no consta to be specifically applied to the Catholic Pyongyang. But the Catholic faith also took root there, within a young and vigorous ecclesiastical constituency.

The chronology of that Church is clear and verifiable: 1927 the Apostolic Prefecture of Pyongyang, entrusted to missionaries, was erected; 1939 and in the reorganisation of the Korean hierarchy, in the 1962, was raised to full-fledged diocese, suffranea of Seoul. From those years there is a memory of temples and an active community, although on the exact name and advocation of the ancient Pyongyang cathedral no consta reliable information in accessible sources.

Con la llegada del régimen comunista, esa vida quedó casi aniquilada. Los cristianos fueron clasificados como «clase hostil»; obispos y sacerdotes desaparecieron en las décadas de 1940 y 1950. De la figura de monseñor Hong Yong-ho, último obispo residencial, las fuentes recuerdan su encarcelamiento y su desaparición; la fecha exacta de su muerte no constaand therefore the Holy See never considered the diocese extinct: it still exists legally, though vacant and prevented, administered from Seoul.

Today, no historic cathedral is functioning in Pyongyang. The Marian devotion of that city survives, more than in stones or processions, in the sorrowful memories of the faithful in the South who speak of "the lost Jerusalem of the North," and in the clandestine practices of the remaining Christians. There are no verifiable accounts of "hidden rosaries" with names and dates—any such assertion would be inference, not fact—but the Korean Church entrusts that memory to the intercession of Mary.

That is why the Rosary is prayed for Pyongyang like one who guards a flame: so that the Mother who accompanied the sowing of that faith may sustain it in silence and return it, one day, to the light.