AMERICAN MARTYR IN KOREA

 

 As today we face a world with such hatred and loss of life, we find another American who is being considered for  canonization, who knew in his lifetime persecution.

SERVANT of GOD PATRICK BRENNAN was born in 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, to Irish parents.

He was educated in St Rita's High School and Quigley's Prep Seminary before studying for the priesthood in Mundelein seminary and ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1928, and served as a curate in Epiphany Church, St. Mary of the Lake, and St Anthonys, Joliet.

He joined the Missionary Society of St. Columban (Columban Fathers) in 1936 and  was assigned to Kwangju, Korea in 1937. In the early spring of 1939 the Maynooth Mission was entrusted by the Holy See with the care of a second mission field in the Province of Kogendo in Korea. Three Columban priests, Father Tom Quinlan, Father Pat Brennan and Father James Doyle were immediately appointed to the new territory.

Father Brennan was interned after Pearl Harbour, 8 Dec 1941, with the other priests. He was repatriated to the United States on the exchange ship “Gripsholm” in 1942 as an enemy alien.   In the United States he joined the US Army as a Chaplain, served in Normandy, Germany and the Ardennes.   Before going overseas, he won the Soldier’s medal for heroic service rendered to troops injured in a collision between a hospital train and a freight train.     

 In 1947 he was appointed missionary director of the Society in Asia.

In 1948, Monsignor Brennan was appointed Prefect Apostolic of Kwangju, Korea, where he was taken prisoner and killed by North Korean forces, September 24, 1950, in Taejon prison, along with two other Columban missionaries Fr. Thomas Cusack and Fr. John (Jack) O'Brien. His body was never recovered.

On September 24th 1050 Monsignor Patrick Brennan was killed at the Massacre of prisoners in Taejon. He was 49 years old.

In 2000, the names of the Columban Priests who were killed during the Korean War were inscribed in “The Book of Martyrs” presented to Pope (St.) John Paul II at a ceremony in the Colosseum in Rome commemorating Martyrs of the 20th Century.