Immaculate Conception, Patron of Korea

Patron of Korea
Recognized by the Church

The Catholic Church in Korea is officially under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary como patrona principal, con Saint Joseph as a copattern. It is a strong feature today in the liturgical and pastoral life of the country, especially visible in South Korea.

Main data

Origin and history

The Catholic Church in Korea is officially under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary como patrona principal, con Saint Joseph as a copattern. It is a strong feature today in the liturgical and pastoral life of the country, especially visible in South Korea.

The faith came to Korea in a unique way: first by means of seculars, who received and transmitted it for decades, and only later came the missionaries. The country was entrusted to the French missionary clergy of the Foreign Missions of Paris (MEP), whose first apostolic vicars were Monsignor Laurent Imbert (1796-1839), martyred in 1839, and his successor Monsignor Jean- Joseph Ferreol (1808-1853), who managed to enter Korea in 1845 with St. Andrew Kim Taegon.

The missionary tradition attributes to one of these two pastors the having placed the mission of Korea under the patronage of the Immaculate around 1838-1841. It is appropriate to distinguish here the safe from the undocumented: Sure. that today the Immaculate is the main patron of the Church in Korea and that this is used liturgical; instead, the the exact text of the initial decree or letter and the precise date (1838 or 1841) do not contain in accessible sources, and should be taken as a credible reconstruction of tradition, not historically closed data. The same is true of the co-patronage of St. Joseph: deeply rooted in the life of the Church, but without an original document that is recorded with public certainty.

The image and the sanctuary

Unlike other advocacy, the national patron of Korea is not linked to a single image of veneration. It is the same Virgin Mary under the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, assumed as Mother and Patron of the Korean people. Its reference temple is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of Myeongdongin Seoul, heart of the Church in Korea. A unique image of this national apvocation no consta.

Los títulos devocionales «Nuestra Señora de Corea» (Holy Mother of Corea) y «Reina de los Mártires de Corea» se usan en ámbitos piadosos reconocidos y aplican a esta misma patrona; son legítimos y muy extendidos, pero pertenecen al plano devocional y pastoral, sin que conste un decreto canónico que los instituya como títulos distintos.

Sponsorship and coronation

The Immaculate Conception is the main patron of Korea, with St. Joseph as co-patron. A canonical coronation of national advocation no consta.

Party and devotion

The feast is celebrated, as in the universal Church, the 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and is the great Marian solemnity of the country for being the feast of the patron of Korea. On that day, solemn Masses and acts of Marian renewal are held.

For Korean Catholics, the Immaculate as a patron evokes the purity of a faith preserved in the midst of persecution, sustained for decades by lay catechists without a stable presence of priests. It is an opportunity to renew prayer for the nation, for peace on the peninsula and for reconciliation between the North and the South.

Link to the Rosary

The Korean memory preserves that parents taught their children to pray the Rosary in hiding, keeping hidden small Marian images. To entrust the country to the Immaculate One is today in the Rosary, prayed for the fidelity of the Christian people and for the peace of the peninsula. To come to Mary, ten after ten, is the simple way in which this patron accompanies her people.