Saint Andrew Kim Taegŏn

My dear brothers and sisters, know this: Our Lord Jesus Christ upon descending into the world took innumerable pains upon and constituted the holy Church through his own passion and increases it through the passion of its faithful....

Now, however, some fifty or sixty years since the holy Church entered into our Korea, the faithful suffer persecutions again. Even today persecution rages, so that many of our friends of the same faith, among whom I am myself, have been thrown into prison. just as you also remain in the midst of persecution. Since we have formed one body, how can we not be saddened in our innermost hearts? How can we not experience the pain of separation in our human faculties?

However, as Scripture says, God cares for the least hair of our heads, and indeed he cares with his omniscience; therefore, how can persecution be considered as anything other than the command of God, or his prize, or precisely his punishment?...

We are twenty here, and thanks be to God all are still well. If anyone is killed, I beg you not to forget his family. I have many more things to say, but how can I express them with pen and paper? I make an end to this letter. Since we are now close to the struggle, I pray you to walk in faith, so that when you have finally entered into Heaven, we may greet one another. I leave you my kiss of love.

-- Saint Andrew Kim Taegŏn in his last letter to his parish

NOTE: Today in Korea there are approximately 4 million Catholics, and Korea has the 4th largest number of Catholic saints in the world.

Saint Emily de Rodat

I was sixteen years of age when I learned to know Our Lord. This experience overwhelmed me and I wanted God and only God. 

-- Saint Emily de Rodat

Saint Vincent de Paul

It was His Will that after His death the Church should give us His image in the crucifix, that he might appear to us in a condition of utmost ignominy. And why? He did it because He knew the worth of humility and the danger of the sin which opposes it.

-- Saint Vincent de Paul

Saint Robert Bellarmine

Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved. 

-- Saint Robert Bellarmine

Saint Ambrose of Milan

No one heals himself by wounding another. 

-- Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Catherine of Genoa

If it were given to a man to see virtue's reward in the next world, he would occupy his intellect, memory and will in nothing but good works, careless of danger or fatigue. 

-- Saint Catherine of Genoa

Saint Aelia Flaccilla

To distribute money belongs to the imperial dignity, but I offer up for the imperial dignity itself personal service to the Giver. 

-- Saint Aelia Flaccilla