Sto. Cristo and St. Andrew Kim Taegon Parish

St. Andrew Kim Taegon Parish
The Parish of Santo Cristo and Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (산토 크리스토 와 산 김대건 의 교구)
14°46′52″N 120°56′01″E / 14.781062°N 120.933718°ECoordinates: 14°46′52″N 120°56′01″E / 14.781062°N 120.933718°E
Location	Brgy. Lolomboy Bocaue, Bulacan
Country	Philippines
Denomination	Roman Catholic
History
Founder(s)	Rev. Fr. Vicente Robles
Dedication	St. Andrew Kim Taegon
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Administration
Archdiocese	Manila
Diocese	Malolos
Clergy
Archbishop	Luis Antonio Tagle
Bishop(s)	Rev. Jose F. Oliveros, D.D.

The Sto. Cristo and St. Andrew Kim Taegon Parish (English-Korean: 산토 크리스토 와 산 김대건 의 교구) is a parish founded by Korean catholic saint Andrew Kim Taegon.

History

In 2009, construction of the parish's church building began and has since been rising fast with the help of the community.

The church is to be dedicated to the Korean saint Andrew Kim-Taegon. the first Korean-born Catholic priest who stayed in the Philippines in the early 18th century.

During the Joseon Dynasty, Christianity was suppressed in Korea and many Christians were persecuted. Kim-Taegon, who at that time was still a seminarian, went abroad and settled in the village of Lolomboy in Bocaue, Bulacan, in the Philippines, where he continued his studies.

Fr. Vic Robles of Sto. Cristo and St. Andrew Kim-Taegon Parish says that the saint’s diary reveals that he stayed in a place called “Hacienda de Lolomboy”, owned by the Dominican friars, from the 1830s to 1841. The saint described the hacienda as a “quiet place of prayer and conducive for retreats.”

Robles said Kim-Taegon busied himself with studies with the Dominicans while in Lolomboy until he left for China where he was ordained a deacon in 1844 and became a priest the next year.

Kim-Taegon returned to Korea in October 1845, leading a group of French missionaries, where he started his mission to evangelize. For this, he was arrested and sent to prison in Seoul, where he was charged as a traitor and tagged the ringleader of a heretical sect. He was sentenced to death and beheaded on Sept. 16, 1846.

Kim-Taegon was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in May 1984.